THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

RIVERSIDE 


GIFT  OF 

Col.  Arnold  W.  Shutter 


THE  RISE  AND  GROWTH 
OF  THE    ENGLISH    NATION 


WITH   SPECIAL   REFERENCE 
TO     EPOCHS     AND     CRISES 


A  HISTORY  OF  AND  FOR    THE  PEOPLE 


W.    H.    S.    AUBREY,    LL.  D. 


IN   THREE    VOLUMES 
VOL.    I.      TO    A.  D.    1399 


NEW     YORK 

D.    APPLETON     AND    COMPANY 

1901 


v./ 


Authorized  Edition. 


PREFACE. 


This  Work,  the  result  of  many  years'  research  and 
labour,  is  submitted  to  the  consideration  of  those  who, 
like  the  Author,  are  proud  of  the  land  of  their  birth, 
and  who  find  pleasure  in  tracing  the  Rise  and  Growth 
of  the  Nation,  and  the  course  of  its  History  with  refer- 
ence to  European  and  world-wide  movements. 

It  is  written  in  no  partisan  or  sectarian  spirit,  and  is 
not  designed  to  advocate  any  particular  theory  of  Poli- 
tics, of  Philosophy,  or  of  Religion  ;  but  it  claims  to  be 
thoroughly  patriotic,  and  is  inspired  by  a  love  of  the 
freedom  that  springs  out  of  righteousness. 

As  is  fully  explained  in  the  first  Chapter,  an  attempt 
is  made  to  exhibit  the  development  of  the  English 
people;  with  the  varying  phases  of  their  daily  life,  the 
formation  of  the  national  character,  the  continuity  and 
application  of  great  principles,  and  the  growth  of  con- 
stitutional liberties. 


iv  PREFACE. 

Special  attention  is  given  to  great  Crises  and 
Epochs,  such  as  Saxon  Influences;  the  Norman  Infu- 
sion ;  Feudalism  ;  the  Contests  and  Blending  of  Races; 
the  Great  Charter ;  the  Black  Death  and  Statutes  of 
Labourers ;  the  Wars  of  the  Roses ;  the  Revival  of 
Learning;  the  Spread  of  Literature  ;  Great  Inventions 
and  Discoveries;  the  Reformation  ;  the  Stuart  Conflict, 
and  the  Glorious  Revolution. 

The  Rise  of  the  Middle  and  Trading  Classes,  and  of 
Municipal  Institutions ;  Legal  Procedure ;  Parliamen- 
tary Settlements;  the  relation  of  the  Redress  of  Griev- 
ances to  the  Granting  of  Supply;  the  treatment  of 
Crime  and  Pauperism ;  with  Industrial,  Commercial, 
and  Domestic  Matters,  are  adequately  described. 

A  Bibliographical  List  is  prefixed  to  this  Volume; 
giving  the  Titles  of  Standard  Works  in  various  branches 
of  Historical  inquiry.  At  the  close  of  the  third  Vol- 
ume will  be  found  a  copious  Index,  by  the  aid  of 
which,  and  of  the  detailed  Tables  of  Contents,  the 
information  is  made  easily  accessible. 

Croydon,  April,  1895. 


GENERAL   SYNOPSIS   OF  THE  WORK, 


Period. 

A.D. 

Chapters. 

I. 

Inception 

To  1066 

..       1-6 

II. 

Struggles 

1066-1216 

-       7-13 

III. 

Formation 

1216-1327 

14-20 

IV. 

Development 

1327-1399 

21-27 

V. 

Retrogression     ... 

1399-1509 

..     28-32 

VI. 

Renaissance 

1509-1530 

••     33-36 

VII. 

Nationalization  ... 

1530-1558 

••     37-41 

VIII. 

Progress 

1558-1603 

..     42-47 

IX. 

Pause  and  Reaction 

1603-1640 

..     48-53 

X. 

Idealism 

1640-1658 

..     54-58 

XL 

Revolution 

1658-1702     . 

••     59-63 

XII. 

Constitutionalism 

1702-1760 

..     64-69 

XIIL 

Repressio'n 

1760-1820 

..     70-77 

XIV. 

Revival 

1S20-1846     . 

..     78-82 

XV. 

Actual  &  Potential 

1846-189S     . 

..     83-87 

CONTENTS    OF    VOLUME  I. 


Bibliographical  List,  xvi.-xxiv. 
Historical  Landmarks,  xxv.-xxxii. 


period  I.— inception.   Uo  H.S>.  1066. 

Chapter  I. — Myths,  Legends,  and  Romances. 


Ideal  and  Actual  History 

PAGE 

2 

PAGB 

Transcripts     and      Embellish- 

Exaggeiated Individualism 

3 

ments      .... 

II 

True  Kings  of  Men  . 

4 

Monkish  Chronicles 

II 

Constitutional  Epochs 

5 

Hardy's      'Descriptive     Cata- 

Spirit of  Freedom 

5 

logue  '     .        .        .        . 

13 

A  Panorama  of  the  Past  . 

6 

Pre-Historic  Timts 

14 

Sources  of  Information    . 

7 

Archreological  Remains    . 

14 

Record  Commission 

7 

Classical  References 

15 

Chronicles  and  Memorials 

8 

Primitive  Inhal)itants 

16 

Calendars  of  State  Papers 

8 

Country  partially  settled  . 

17 

Authorities  for  Special  Eras 

9 

The  Britons 

18 

World  wide  Movements 

9 

The  Druids 

.      19 

Early  Traditions 

10 

Stonehenge 

.      19 

Chapter  II.— Roma 

^IS   IN 

Brita:n.      B.C.  55-A.D.  410. 

Julius  Coesar 

20 

Villas. — Solid  Masonry    . 

29 

Vespasian. — Boadicea 

21 

Existing  Remains 

.      30 

Julius  Agricola  . 

22 

Industries  and  Manufactures 

31 

Roman  Wall 

24 

Pottery  and  Metal-Work 

31 

'Noiitia  Imperii.' — Severus 

25 

Roach  Smith's  Researches 

32 

Withdrawal  of  Romans    . 

26 

Funeral  Rites    . 

33 

Military  Roads. — Saxon  Stree 

ts   27 

Articles  disinterred  . 

33 

Principal  Towns 

28 

Social  Effects     . 

34 

Chapter  III.— Natk 

)NAL  / 

ACCRETION  and  Formation. 

a.d.  4 

10-901. 

Tribal  Rivalries 

35 

Boldness  and  Ferocity 

42 

The  Welsh.— Picts  and  Scots 

36 

Repeated  Incursions 

43 

Saxon  Settlers    . 

37 

^thelwulf 

43 

Their  Characteristics 

38 

/Elfred  the  Great 

44 

Arthurian  Legends    . 

39 

Guthrum     .... 

44 

Coast  Settlements 

39 

The  Danelagh   . 

45 

Ella. — Cerdic 

40 

Names  of  Towns 

45 

Vague  Kingdoms 

.      40 

An  Incipient  Navy    . 

46 

Ecgberht  of  Wessex 

40 

Alfred's  Work  and  Character 

46 

Figment  of  a  Heptarchy  . 

41 

The  Fyid,  or  Militia 

47 

Milton's  '  Kites  and  Crows ' 

41 

yElfred's  Administration  . 

47 

Danes,  or  Northmen 

41 

An  English  Prototype 

48 

CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  I. 


vii 


Chapter  IV. — Saxon  Laws  and  Usages,     a. d,  600-1000. 


Food  and  Drink 
Dress  and  Ornaments 
Dwellings  and  Architecture 
The  Arts    .... 
Simples  and  Charms 
Votive  Offerings. — Surgery 
Saxon  Language. — Ba:da 
Csedmon. — Cynewulf 
School  of  York 
Saxon  Chronicle 
^thelberht  of  Kent 
Codes  of  Laws. — Mulcts 
Trial  by  Ordeal 
Alfred's  Dom-boc     . 
Compuigators    . 
Relative  Value  of  Oaths 

Chapter  V. — Rise  o 

St.  Augustine's  Mission 
Nominal  Converts     . 
Archbishop  Theodore 
Rights  of  Patronage 
Alleged  British  Church 
St.  Aidan  and  Missionaries 
Relapses  into  Heathenism 
Roman  Parentage  of  Church 
Uncertainty  of  Numbers 
St.  Augustine  of  Hippo 
Influence  on  Theo.ogy 
Tithes. — Peter's  Pence 
Assumptions  by  Rome 
National  Resistance  . 
Monasticism.  — Augustinians 
Benedictines.  —  Prmcipal   Ab 

beys         .... 
Enormous  Wealth    . 
Privileges  and  Exemptions 
A  New  Papal  Army 
St.  Dunstan. — Celibacy  . 
Carthusians. — Cistercians 
Rural  Clergy 
Relics. — Miracles 


49 
50 
51 

52 
53 
54 
55 
56 
57 
58 
58 
58 
59 
59 
60 
61 


Landless  Men. — Slavery  . 
The  Witenagemot 
Varied  Functions 
Shiremote  .... 
Ealdorman  and  Sherifi"     , 
Hundred-Court 
Tithings. — Jurisdictions   . 
Local  Names  and  Customs 
Land  Tenure 
Folcland  and  Bocland 
The  Mark  System     . 
Townships.  —  Boroughs. 
Manors   .... 
London  and  other  Cities  . 
Origin  of  Privileges  . 
Guilds. — Scot  and  Lot     . 


ECCLESIASTICISM.      A.D.  597-IO42. 


68 
69 
69 
70 
70 
70 
71 
71 
72 

73 
73 
74 
75 
75 
76 

77 
78 
78 
79 
80 
80 
81 
82 


Episcopal  Dioceses  . 
Sparse  Population     . 
Appointment  of  Bishops 
Disputes  on  Investitures 
^^Ifred's  Successors  . 
Danish  Inroads 
Battle  of  Brunanburh 
^thelstan  . 
Descriptive  Names    . 
More  Danish  Attacks 
Bribes. — The  Danegeld 
Massacre  of  Danes    . 
Critical  Condition     . 
Thurkill's  Inroad 
Eadmund  Ironside    . 
.Saxon  Rule  ended     . 
Fresh  Infusion  needed 
"  Pot-bellied  Equanimity 
Conquerors  absorbed 
Cnut  and  his  Policy  . 
A  Scandinavian  Kingdom 
Harold  Harefoot 
Harthacnut 
England  and  Denmark 


Chapter  VI. — A  Final  Contest  of  Races,     a.d.  1042-1066. 


Eadward  the  Confessor  .  .  93 
Norman  Favourites  ...  94 
Outrages  at  Dover    ...      94 


English  Character  and  Habits  95 
The  Norman  Stock  ...  95 
Robert  the  Devil       ...      96 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  I. 


PAGE 

William's  Visit  to  England 

•      97 

Miscellaneous  Mercenaries 

Earl  Godwine    . 

.      98 

Halley's  Corr-et 

His  Son,  Harold 

•      99 

Harold's  Precautions 

Dealh  of  Eadward     . 

.     100 

Another  Norwegian  Inroad 

Westminster  Abbey  built 

.     100 

Battle  of  Fulford 

Eadgar  ^theling 

.       lOI 

Harold's  March  Northwards   . 

flarold  elected  and  crowned 

.       lOI 

Battle  of  Stamford  Bridge 

William  claims  the  Throne 

.     102 

Landing  of  the  Normans 

Apjjeals  to  Religious  .Sentiment    103 

Unfortunate  Delays  . 

Harold's  Alleged  Oath     . 

.     103 

Harold's  Arrangements    . 

Papal  Intervention     . 

.     104 

Battle  of  Hastings     . 

Hildebrand  (Gregory  VH.) 

.     103 

Death  of  Harold 

His  Ambition  and  Capacity 

.     105 

Heavy  Losses     .        .        .        . 

Ultimate  Papal  Designs   . 

106 

No  National  Leader 

Preparations  for  Invasion 

.    107 

Popular  Regard  for  Harold      . 

period  11— StrucjGlcs.   B.H).  1066-1216. 

Chapter  VII.— Norman  I 

NFUSION    AND    FEUDALISM. 

A 

.D.    I 066- I 086. 

William's  Title  of  Conqueror 

116 

Historical  Romance 

Pretended  Succession 

116 

Customs  and  Courts  perpetu- 

Fresh Arrivals   . 

117 

ated         

March  on  London     . 

117 

Policy  of  William  I. 

Internal  Dissensions 

118 

Native  Speech  continued 

An  Informal  Election 

118 

And  English  Law     . 

Coronation. — Panic  . 

118 

The  Curfew. — Cinque  Ports  . 

Charter  to  London    . 

119 

New  Forest        .        .        .        . 

Misrule. — Slow  Subjugation 

119 

Stringent  Regulations 

Resistance  in  the  West     . 

120 

William's   Passion  for   Hunt- 

Trampled out. — Confiscation 

120 

ing  

Burning,  Pillage,  and  Murder 

121 

Brutal  Game  Laws    . 

Yorkshire  ravaged     . 

122 

Domesday  Book 

And  the  Midland  Districts 

123 

Its  Name  and  Scope 

Hereward  and  the  Fens  . 

123 

A  Contemporary  Picture  . 

Plunder  and  Forfeiture     . 

124 

New  Tenure  of  Land 

Character  of  the  Settlers  . 

125 

Modified  Feudalism 

Boast  of  Norman  Lineage 

126 

William's  Caution 

Most  Peerages  modern     . 

126 

Gradual  Changes 

Nature  of  the  Conquest    , 

126 

Oath  of  Fealty  .        .        .        . 

A  Fusion  of  Systems 

127 

Growth  of  Baronial  Power 

Chapter  VIII. — King  and  Church 

Hildebrand's  Policy  .  .  .     137 

False  Decretals  .  .  .137 

Foreign  Priests  arrive  .  .138 

Archbis.hop  Lanfranc  .  .139 

William's  Attitude    .  .  .     139 

Hibtorical  Continuity  .  .     140 


D.    1070-1154. 

A  Struggle  Inevitable       .        .  140 

Civil  and  Ecclesiastical  Courts  141 

Battle  Abbey     .        .        .        .  I4r 

Episcopal  Exemption  claimed  142 

The  Pope  favours  the  Monks  142 

William  I.  and  his  Barons       .  142 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  I. 


\x 


His  Last  Days  . 
Character  and  Policy 
William  Rufus'  Usurpation 
Appeals  to  the  English    . 
Arrangement  with  Robert 
The  Crusades     . 
Physical  and  Moral  Effects 
Indirect  Advantages 
Misgovernmeut  of  Rufus  . 
Extortion  and  Simony 
Dispute  with  Anselm 
Alleged  Sacrilege  and  Impiety 


143 

144 

145 
145 
146 
146 
146 
147 
147 
148 
148 
149 


Killed  in  New  Forest 

Henry  I. — Charters 

Contests  with  the  Church 
I  Anselm's  Character  . 
i  Earliest  of  the  Schoolmen 
j  Alexander  of  Hales  . 
I  Baronial  Tyranny 

Rivals  to  the  Throne 
I  Stephen's  Usurpation 

Anarchy  and  Suffering 

A  New  Era 

Henry  of  Anjou 


Chapter  IX. — Social  Glimpses,    a.d.   1000-1200. 


William  of  Malmesbury    . 
Giraldus  Cambrensis 
John  of  Salisbury 
Walter  Mapes    . 
Matthew  Paris  . 
Alexander  Neckham 
Cycles  of  Fashion 
Caricatures  and  Sermons 
Architecture.  —  London. 

Windsor 
Wooden  Dwellings  . 
Use  of  Wine. — Traders  . 


158 
159 
160 
160 
161 
i6i 
162 
162 

163 
164 

165 


Corporate  Rights  purchased 
London  Charters 
Provincial  Towns 
Trade  Jealousy  . 
The  Servile  Class 
Diverse  Conditions  . 
Copyholders. — Castles 
Manorial  Courts 
Gradual  Amelioration 
Influence  of  the  Church 
Police  and  Judicial  Systems 
Mute  Sufferinp;  . 


Chapter  X. — Constitutional  and  Legal  Developments 
A.D.  1154-1189. 


The  Plantagenets  Foreigners  .     171 
Henry  II.  of  Anjou          .        .     172 
Continental  Possessions   .        -173 
Charter  of  Liberties, — ^Judica- 
ture          174 

Legatine  and  Provincial  Con- 
stitutions .  .  .  '75 
Early  Legal  Treatises  .  .175 
Eminent  Justiciars  .  .  .176 
Ctiria  Regis. — Law's  Delay  .  177 
Bribery. — Regal  Itineraries  .  178 
Earlier  Judicial  Eyres  .  -179 
Exchequer  Court.  —  Roll  of  the 
Pipe 180 


Records  and  Tallies 
Assize     of     Clarendon ; 

Northampton 
Justices  Itinerant 
Kingly  Authority  strained 
Baronial  Power  curbed     . 
Scutage,  or  Shield-Money 
Sheriffs. — Assize  of  Arms 
Military  Force   . 
Trial  by  Jury 

Slow  Growth  of  the  System 
Peine  forte  et  dure     . 
Wager  of  Battle 


of 


Chapter  XI. — The  Church  or  the  State 

187 
1 88 
189 


Origin  of  the  Dispute 
Papal  Claims     .... 
Appeals  to  Rome 
Becket.  —  Romance  and  Re- 
ality         190 

Chancellor  and  Archbishop     .     191 


A.D.    II54-II70, 
Points  in  Dispute      ,        .        .     192 
Real  Issue  .        .        .        .193 

Constitutions  of  Clarendon      .     194 
High    Church    and    Erastian 

Views 194 

Becket's  Rupture  with  Henry      195 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  I. 


PAGE 

Six  Years'  Conflict    .        .  .     196 

Return  to  Canterbury       .  .     197 

Fresh  Disputes  .  .  .197 

The  Murder. — Beatification  .     ig8 


Canterbury  Pilgrims 
Colet  and  Krasmus  . 
Principles  at  Stake  . 
Becket's  Strugi^le  useless 


PACK 
199 

199 
200 
200 


Chapter  XII. — Regal  Tyranny  and  Exactions,     a.d.  1156-1215. 


Pope  Adrian  IV.  .  .  .  201 
Grant  of  Ireland  .  .  .  201 
Irish  Church  Independent  .  202 
Early  History  of  Ireland  .  203 
The  People. — Round  Towers  203 
Invasion.  —  Supposed  Con- 
quest         204 

Synod  of  Cashel. — The  Pale  .  205 

Trade  and  Commerce       .        .  205 

Donnybrook  Fair      .        .        .  206 

Family  Feuds  of  Henry  II.      .  206 
Not     Founder     of    Common 

Law        .        .                .        .  207 

Plis  Commercial  Piety    .        .  208 

Richard  I.          .        .        .        .  209 

Knight  Errantry        .        .        .  209 
Wasteful  Wars  .        .        .        .210 


Oppressive  Taxation 

William  Fitz-Osbert,  or  Long- 
beard      

Nameless  Patriots 

Modified  Hereditary  Succes- 
sion          

Parliamentary  Title  to  Crown 

John  a  Usurper 

French  Possessions  lost    . 

Angevin  Diabolism  . 

"  Servant  of  the  Servants  of 
God" 

Cardinal  Langton 

An  Interdict  for  Six  Years 

England  a  Fief  of  Rome  . 

Fourth  Lateran  Council  . 

Rome  at  its  Zenith    . 


Chapter  XIII. — The  Great  Charter  of  Liberties. 
A.D.  1215-1216. 


Arbitrary  Rule  .  .  .  .219 
Monarchy  and  Baronage  .  219 
Refusal  to  pay  Scutage  .  .219 
Capricious  Exactions. — Bribes  220 
Sale  of  Justice  .  .  .  .221 
Instances  from  Fine  Rolls  .  221 
Oppression  of  the  Jews  .  .  222 
John's  Licentiousness  .  .  223 
Discontent  and  Resistance  .  223 
Old  Charter  discovered  .  .  224 
Confederacy  at  Bury  .  .  224 
Army  of  God  and  Church  .  225 
Conference  at  Runnymede  .  225 
Great  Charter.  —  Existing 
Copies 225 


The  Provisions. — Wrongs  re- 
dressed     

Clauses  on  Taxation 

Extensions  inevitable 

"  Bible  of  the  Constitution  "  . 

Subsequent  Ratifications 

Principles  applied 

Action  of  the  Barons 

Langton's  Share 

John's  Evasion.  —  Securities 
exacted 

John  appeals  to  Rome 

Hires  ]\iercenaries 

Barons'  Overtures  to  Dauphin 

John's  Death     .... 


212 
213 

214 
214 
215 
215 
216 

217 
217 
217 
218 
218 
218 


226 
227 
228 
229 
230 
230 
231 
231 

232 
232 
233 
234 
235 


period  III.— iformation.   H.2).  1216-1327. 


Chapter  XIV, — The  Papacy  and  the  Friars. 


Accession  of  Henry  III.  . 
Pembroke  the  Regent 
Papal  Claims. — Pandulph 


236 
236 
237 


Monastic  Degeneracy 
Cistercians  and  Giraldus  . 
'  The  Land  of  Cockayne  ' 


A.D.    I216-I246. 

23S 
239 

240 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  I. 


Domin-icans  and  Franciscans  .  241 

Distinctive  Dress       .        .  .  242 

Labours  among  Poor        .  .  243 

Speedy  Corruption  of  Friars  .  243 

Friars-Observaiits      .        .  .  243 

Eminent  Members    .        .  .  244 

Papal  Exactions        .        .  .  245 


National  Liberty  asserted  .  245 

Bishop  Grosseteste    .        .  .  246 

Attainments  and  Writings  .  246 

Jews  persecuted         .        .  .  247 

Final  Expulsion         .        .  .  249 

'J'heir  Sacred  Writings     .  .  249 

Maimonides  .        .  .  249 


Chapter  XV. — King,  Barons,  and  Commons,     a.d.   1216-1272. 


Complaints  of  Foreigners 

Queen's  Gold     . 

Denry's  Extravagance 

Aids  and  TalLiges 

Arbitrary    Methods.  —  Griev- 
ances      .... 

Stringent  Forest  Laws 

Charters  confirmed,  on   Condi- 
tions       .... 

A  Histrionic  Ceremony    . 

Simon  de  Montfort  . 

Henry's  Falsity 

Committee  of  Barons 

Knights  of  the  Shire 


250 

251 
252 
252 


254 

255 
256 
256 
257 
258 
258 


Provisions  of  Oxford         .        .  258 

And  of  Westminster         .        .  259 
Five       Years'      Storm      and 

Trouble 259 

Award  of  Louis  IX.  .  .  260 
Poems  and  Songs  .  .  .  260 
First  Parliament  .  .  .  261 
House  of  Commons  .  .  262 
City  and  Town  Burgesses  .  262 
Witan  :  Great  Council  :  Par- 
liament      263 

Fresh  Party  Troubles       .        .  264 

Battle  of  Evesham     .        .        .  264 

Dictum  of  Kenilworth      .        .  265 


Chapter  XVL — Law  and  the  Judicature,     a.d.  1272-1290. 


An  Historical  Epoch        .        .  266 

Edward  1 267 

Growth  of  Middle  Class  .        .  267 

Queen  Eleanor  ....  268 

Wales  invaded   ....  269 

Corruption  among  Judges        .  271 

Codification  of  Laws         .        .  271 

Changes  in  Legal  Procedure  .  272 
King's       Bench  ;       Common 
Pleas  ;       and      Exchequer 

Courts 272 

The  Statutes. — Year  Books    .  272 


'  Speculum  Juris,'  by  Durand  273 

Instructions  to  Counsel    .        .  273 

State  Documents. — Records   .  274 

Latin  and  Norman-French      .  274 
Seals  and  Wax  .        .        .        .274 

Attestations. — Signs-Manual  .  275 

Inquiries  into  Abuses        .        .  275 

Hundred-Rolls  ....  275 

Condition  of  the  People  .        .  276 

Statute  of  Quia  Emptores        .  276 

Of  Qiio  Warranto     .        .        .  277 

Perambulators  of  Forests         .  277 


Chapter  XVII. — Disputes  with  the  Clergy,     a.d.   1272-1307. 


Growth  of  Parliaments     .  .  278 

Diverse  Usages         .        •  .  278 

Class  Representatives       .  .  278 

States-General  of  France  .  279 

House  of  Lords         .        .  .  279 

Fifteenths  and  Tenths      .  .  2S0 

Principles  of  Self-Taxation  .  280 

Heavy  Imposts  .        .  .281 

Taxes  on  Wool,  Wine,  &c.  .  28 1 

Protests  and  I'iesistance    .  .  282 

Great  Charter  cuntiraied  .  282 


Clerical  Wealth  and  Power     .  283 

Renewal  of  Old  Disputes        .  283 

Statute  of  Mortmain         .        .  284 

Clergy  refuse  to  pay  Taxes      .  284 

And  are  outlawed     .        .        .  285 

They  purchase  Peace        .        .  286 

Boniface  VIII.  and  Scotland  .  286 

Barons'  Pj-otest  .        .        .  287 

Foreign  Ecclesiastics        .        .  287 

Papal  Legates    ....  288 

Appeals  to  Rome      .        .        .  288 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  I. 


Chapter  XVIII. — Scottish  Akfairs.     a.d.  1291-1327. 


PAGE 

National  Prejudice"?  .        .        .  289 

Claimants  for  the  Throne         .  289 

Edward  I.  asked  to  decide  .  290 
John  Baliol  selected  .  .291 
He  renounces  Edward      .        .291 

I'.nglish  Guardian  appointed    .  292 

Fresh  Outbreaks. — Wallace    .  292 

Battles  and  Sieges     .        .        .  293 

Desolation  and  Anarchy  .        .  294 

Robert  Bruce     ....  295 

Family  and  Party  Feuds  .        .  296 

Death  of  Edward  I.           .        .  297  j 

His  Purposes  and  Work  .        .  297  ' 

Edward  II 298  i 


His  Favourites 
Ordinances  of  1311  . 
Contests  with  Barons 
More  Troubles  in  Scotland 
An  Invasion  in  Force 
Battle  of  Bannockburn     . 
Famine  and  Pestilence 
Civil  War. — Queen's  Plot 
Edward  II.  a  Fugitive 
Capture  and  Murder 
Growth  of  National  Liberties 
Supply  and  Grievances    . 
Right  of  Petition 
Knights  Templars  suppressed 


Chapter  XIX. — Domestic  Manners,     a.d.  1200-1400. 

Meals  and  Hours 
Beds  and  Furniture  . 
Artificial  Light  . 
Domestic  Implements 
Valuations  for  Subsidies 
Feats  of  Strength  and  Skill 
Field-Sports. — Hawking 
Jongleurs  and  Minstrels  . 
Feast  of  Fools    . 
Mystery  and  Miracle  Plays 
Size  and  Uses  of  Churches 
Early  English  Architecture 
Other  Orders.  ^Instances 
Ordinary  Dwellings 
Rare  Use  of  Glass    . 
Artisans'  Wages 


Stories  and  Romances 

•    305 

Treatment  of  Women 

.    306 

Vagaries  of  Fashion  . 

•    307 

Books  on  Manners    . 

•    307 

Charlatans  and  Quacks 

.    308 

Pedlars  and  Chapmen 

.    309 

Principal  Seaports     . 

.    309 

Wealth  of  Norfolk    . 

.    310 

Imports. — Foreign  Trade 

.    310 

Sir  John  Mandeville 

•    3" 

Fruits  and  Vegetables 

.    3" 

Currency  and  Coinage 

.    312 

Spicery. — Brewing    . 

.    313 

Adulteration  of  Food 

.    313 

Cookery  Books  and  Uten 

sils  .    314 

Monastic  Epicures    . 

.    314 

Chapter  XX.— Agriculture,  Travelling,  &c.    a.d.  1200-1400. 


Leases. — Rents  and  Prices  .  323 

Farming  Methods. — Villages  .  324 

Rates  of  Produce       .        .  .  325 

Mills.— Cost  of  Stones     .  .  326 

Roads. — Bridges. — Tolls  .  327 

Messengers  and  Couriers  .  327 

Conveyances. — Horses     .  .  328 

Perils  of  the  Road     .        .  .  329 

Guest-Houses. — Inns       .  .  329 

Justices  of  the  Peace         .  .  330 

Feuds  and  Lawlessness    .  .  3iO 


Tyranny  of  Nobles    . 
Suspicion  of  Strangers 
Crime  and  Punishments  . 
Prisons. — The  Gallows    . 
Pages. —Bower-Maidens  . 
Education.  —  Winchester 

School    .... 
William  of  Wykeham 
The  Universities 
Patrons  of  Learning 
Endowments 


CONTENTS ^F  VOLUME  I. 


Ipenot)  IV.— 2)evelopment.   B."©.  1327-1399- 


Chapter  XXI. - 


-England  or  France  Predomjnant. 
A.D.  1327-1373. 


Accession  of  Edward  III. 
Scottish  Aflairs. — Stuarts 
Crown  of  France  claimed 
Battles  of  Sluys  and  Crejy 
Gunpowder  and  Cannon  . 
Capture  of  Calais 
Home    Grievances.  —  Mono- 
polies     .       •         .        .        . 
Legislative  Resistance 
Kavatres  of  Black  Prince 


■AGE 

PAGB 

340 

Massacre  at  Limoges 

347 

340 

False  Chivalry    . 

347 

341 

Battle  of  Poitiers 

348 

342 

French  Provinces  overrun 

348 

343 

King  John  a  Captive 

348 

344 

Rising  of  Jacquerie    . 

349 

Treaty  of  Bretigny    . 

349 

345 

Fresh  Hostilities 

350 

345 

France  again  lost 

350 

346 

Waste  of  the  Conflict 

351 

Chapter  XXII. 


-The  Black  Death  and  Statutes  of  Labourers. 
A.u.  I348--I360. 


Former   Outbreaks   of    Plague 
The  Great  Pestilence 
Theme  of  the  '  Decameron  ' 
Symptoms  and  Effects 
Labours  of  Franciscans     . 
Insanitary  Conditions 
Typhoid  Fever  :  Flux 

rosy         .... 
Medicine. — John   of  Gaddes 

den  .... 

Friar  Roger  Bacon    . 
Attainments  and  Researches 
His  Discoveries 
Parallelisms  with  Lord  Bacon 


Lep 


352 
352 
353 
353 
354 
354 

355 

356 
357 
357 
358 
358 


Economic    Results    of    Black 

Death 

Dearth  of  labour 
Yet  improving  Conditions 
Changes  inevitable    , 
P'eudalism  dying  hard 
Grasping  Lords  of  the  .Soil 
.Statutes  of  Work  and  Wages 
Iron-bound  Rules 
Failure,  and  Renewed  Efforts 
But  Inoperative 
Another  Drastic  Statute  . 
Later  Futile  Enactments 
An  Industrial  Revolution 


35S 
359 
359 
359 
360 
360 
361 
362 
362 
363 
364 
364 
365 


Chapter  XXIII. — The  Protective  Spirit  and  Sumptuary  L.wvs. 
A.D.  1327-1363. 

Trade  Guilds     ....  372 
Livery  Companies     .        .        .  372 
Paternal    Government.  —  Of- 
ficialism          ....  372 
Exploded     and      Inoperative 

Statutes 373 

Apparel  and  Diet  regulated     .  373 

Fairs  and  Markets     .        .        .  374 

Prohibitions  and  Restrictions  .  374 

Assize  of  Bread  and  Ale  .        .  375 

Forestalling  and  Regrating      .  375 

Legislative  Leading-strings      .  376 


Borough  Privileges    . 

.    365 

Villenage  mitigated  . 

.    366 

Jree  Peasanti7 

.    366 

Beggars  and  Vagabonds 

.     367 

The  Poor  Law   . 

.    368 

Law  of  Settlement     . 

.    368 

Later  Enactments 

•    369 

^Vool  Trade 

•    369 

Ordinances  of  the  Staple 

•    370 

The  .Staple  Towns    . 

•     370 

Exports  in  1354 

•     371 

f  unnage  and  Poundage 

•    371 

xlv 


CONTENTS  OS  VOL  UME  I. 


Chaptkr  XXIV. — Rising  Power  of  Parliament,     a.d.  1327-1377. 


Royal  Purveyance  .  .  .  376 
Court  Progresses  .  .  .  377 
Enforced  Labour  .  .  .  378 
The  Weary  Official  Round  .  379 
Great  Councils  and  Parlia- 
ments         379 

Procedure  consolidated     .        .  3S0 

Two  Houses — Convocation     .  380 

Redress  of  Grievances  .  381 

Royal  Sul)terfu^es     .        .        .  38I 

Control  over  the  Exchequer    .  382 

Statute  Law. — Political  Life  .  383 

Power  of  the  Commons    .        .  384 


Judicial  Proceedings  in  Eng- 
lish   

"  Good  Parliament  "  of  1376 . 

Impeachments  of  Royal  offi- 
cers   

Personal  Responsibility    . 

Germ  of  Appropriation  Act    . 

Speaker  of  the  llouse 

John  of  Gaunt    .... 

Partial  Retrogression 

Estimate  of  Edward  III. 

Liberties  secured 

Spirit  of  Reform  and  Freedom 


384 

385 

3S5 
386 
386 
386 
3S7 
387 
387 
388 

389 


Chapter  XXV. — "The  Morning  Star  of  the  Reformation." 

A.D.     1377-1390- 


Clerical  Degeneracy 
Universal  Priestcraft 
Enormous  Wealth  of  Church 
Comininations.    —       Church 

Courts    .... 
Vexatious   and  Ruinous  Pro 

cesses      .... 
Benefit  of  Clergy 
The  Neck-Verse 
Perfunctory  Duties. — Celibacy 
Unavailing  Protests  . 
William  of  Occam    . 
John  Duns  Scotus 
Occam's  Work  and  Influence 
Relation  to  the  Reformers 
John  de  Wycliffe 
A  Master  of  Dialectics     . 
Attacks  the  Friars     . 
Their  Corruptions    . 
Contemporary  Satires 
Chaucer's  Description 
Sumpnour  and  Pardoner 
Glaring  Evils. — Ages  of  Faith 
Exceptions  to  Degeneracy 
Chaucer's    Persoun.   —  Other 

Types     .... 


389 
390 
.391 

392 

393 
393 
594 
394 
395 
395 
395 
396 
396 
397 
398 
398 
398 
399 
399 
400 
400 
401 

401 


Pedantry  of  Schoolmen  .  .  401 
Their  Useless  Dialectics  .  .  402 
Richard  of  Bury, '  Philobiblon '  402 
Scarcity  of  MSS.  .  .  .  402 
Lost  Classics  ....  403 
Papal  Demand  of  Tribute  .  403 
WycliFe's  Protest  .  .  .  403 
"  Dominion  founded  in  Grace  "  404 
Royal  Supremacy  re-asserted  .  402 
The  Popes  at  Avignon  .  .  404 
The  Seventy  Years'  Captivity  .  404 
First-fruits  of  Benefices  .  .  405 
Sinecures  and  Absentees  .  405 
Peter's  Pence.  —  Papal  Col- 
lectors       405 

Wyclitfe's  'Speculum'     .        .  405 

National  Wealth  diverted        .  406 

I  Spiritual  Terrorism   .        .        .  406 

I  Statutes  of  Frovisors         .        .  406 

!  King  and  Parliament  supreme  407 
j  Check    on    Episcopal     Crea- 

I      tions 407 

Enforced  by  Pra;munire  .        .  407 
Appeals  and  Citations  to  Rome 

j       forbidden        ....  407 

'  Formidable  Weapons       .        .  408 


Chapter  XXVI. — The  English  Language,    a.d.  1374-1399. 


Concordat  with  Rome 
Wyclifl'e  at  Bruges    . 
His  Offices  in  the  Church 
Development  of  Opinions 


409 
409 


"  Doctor  Evangelicus  "  .  .  409 
Milton's  Estimate  .  .  .  410 
Cited  before  the  Bishop  .  .410 
Political  Side  of  Controversy  .    41a 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL  UME  I. 


XV 


PAGE 

Worldly  and  Selfish  Nobles  .  410 
Used  and  abandoned  him  .  411 
Again  cited  and  censured  .  412 
depression  in  Oxford  .  .  412 
Papal  Schism. — Rival  Popes  .  412 
End  of  Hildebramlism  .  .  412 
Bearings  on  Reformation  .  413 
Wycliffe  on  the  Schism  .  -413 
His  Poor  Priests  .  .  .413 
His  Controversial  Writings  .  414 
Influence  in  Bohemia  .  .  414 
John  Huss. — Jerome  of  Prague  415 
Wyclitife's  Spiritual  Successors    415 


His  '  Wicket' 

Attacks  Papal  Corruptions 

And  Mendicant  Friars 

His  '  Trialogus  ' 

On  Transubstantiation 

Central  Point  at  issue 

'J'ranslation  of  the  Bible  . 

Earlier  Labourers 

Numerous  Copies 

Attempted  Suppression    . 


41S 
415 
416 
416 
416 
416 
417 
417 
417 
418 


PAGE 

Literaiy  Value  of  Work           .  418 
Relation  to  Tyndale's       .        -419 

Slow  Formation  of  Language  419 

Its  Range  and  Flexibility         .  419 

Legislative  and  Judicial  Use    .  419 

Testimony  of  Ranulph  Higden  419 

And  of  John  of  Trevisa    .        .  420 

(jeotfrey  Chaucer      .        .        .  420 
Earlier  Writings        .        .        .421 

Influence  of  Italy      .        .        .  421 

'  Canterbury  Tales  *          .        .  422 

John  Gower       ....  422 

Death  of  Wycliffe     .        .        .  423 

Condemned  at  Constance        .  423 

His  Remains  burned        .        .  423 

Origin  of  Lollards     .        .        .  424 

An  Influence,  not  a  System    .  425 

Profanity  and  Coarseness         .  425 

Lollards  and  Social  Reform    .  426 

Precursors  of  Puritans      .        .  426 

Complaints  against  Clergy       .  427 

Attempts  at  Suppression  .       .  427 

Decay  of  the  Church        .        .  427 


Cfiapier  XXVII. 


-The  Pea«:ants'  Rising,  and  Social  Upheavals. 
A.D.  1377-1399- 


Political  Ferment 

428 

Religious  and  Social  Elements    428 

Work  of  Poor  Priests 

429 

Bible  in  the  Vernacular    . 

429 

Hopes  and  Aspirations    . 

429 

Vivid  Realism. — Effects 

430 

Popular  Ballads 

430 

Robin  Hood  and  Legends 

430 

Early  Socialism 

431 

Oppression  and  Suffering 

431 

Redress  refused 

432 

State  of  Bondsmen    . 

432 

John  Ball  the  Agitator 

433 

'  Piers  Ploughman's  Vision ' 

433 

Compared  with  Bunyan   . 

434 

Scope  of  the  Work   . 

434 

Its  Popularity 

435 

The  '  Ploughman's  Creed  ' 

435 

Exposure  of  Priests  . 

435 

Specific  Grievances  . 

436 

Capitation  Taxes 

436 

An  Intolerable  Burden     . 

437 

Difficult  Collection   . 

437 

Popular  Discontent  . 

A  General  Rising 

Kentish  Independence 

Wat  Tiler 

March  upon  London 

Audience  sought  with  Richard 

II.  ... 

Evil  Advisers     . 
Archbishop  Sudbury  murdered 
A  Panic. — The  Demands 
Conceded  and  Withdrawn 
Vengeance  taken 
But  Villenage  doomed 
Policy  of  Richard  II. 
Aims  at  Absolutism 
Bolingbroke  banished 
Misrule  and  Conspiracy 
Richard  II.  in  Ireland 
Boliiigbroke's  Return 
Richanl  abdicates 
Causes  of  the  Revolution 
Regal  and  Popular  Claims 
Constitutional  Progress    . 


437 
438 
438 
438 
439 

439 
439 
439 
440 
441 
441 
443 
444 
444 
445 
445 
446 
446 
447 
447 
44S 

448 


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HISTORICAL   LANDMARKS. 


B.  c.  55  and  54.  Julius  Caesar's  Visits. 
A.D.  78-84.   Agricola's  Administration. 

120.   Emperor  Hadrian's  Visit. 

211.   Death  of  Emperor  Severus  at  York. 

410.    Romans  withdraw  from  Britain. 

449.   Saxons  arrive  in  successive  bands. 

465.  Settlement  of  South  Saxons,  or  Sussex : 

495.   Of  West  Saxons  (afterwards  Wessex) : 

500-580.  Of    East    Saxons,    Eernicia,    Deira,    East    Anglia,    and 
Mercia. 

597.  Mission  of  St.  Augustine. 

600.  ^thelberht's  Saxon  Laws. 

617.   Deira  and  Bernicia  united  as  Northumbria. 

640.   East  Saxons,  or  Essex,  absorbed  by  Mercia. 

664.   Council  of  Whitby, 

668-690.  Theodore,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 

673-735-  Bceda. 

7S7.   First  Invasion  by  Northmen,  or  Danes. 

796.    Kent  conquered  by  Mercia. 

802-836.   Ecgberht,  King  of  Wessex. 

825.  W'essex  absorbs  Mercia  ;  Sussex,  828  :  and  Northumbria,  841, 

860.   Danes  invade  Northumbria  ;  and  East  Anglia,  S70. 

871-891.   Alfred  the  Great. — More  Danish  Incursions. 

937.  ^thalstan's  Victory  at  Brunanburh. 

961-988.   Dunstan,  .Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 

9b'2.  Danes  burn  London.— 984.  Danegeld  levied. 

too2.   Massacre  of  Danes. — lOio.   Another  inroad. 
1017.   Saxon  Rule  ended. — 1017-1035.   Cnut. 
1035-9,   Harold  Harefoot. — 1039-42.   Harthacnut. 
1042-66.   Eadward  the  Confessor. 

1066.  Westminster    Abbey    finished. — Battles    of   Stamford    Bridge 
(Sept,  25)  and  Hastings  (Oct.  14). 


xvi  HISTORICAL  LANDMARKS. 

070.  Church  Settlements  by  Archbishop  Lanfranc. 

079.  Formation  of  New  Forest. 

085.  Domesday  Book. 

086.  Civil  and  Ecclesiastical  Courts  divided. 
093.  Archbishop  Ansel m.  — 1096.   First  Crusade. 

097.  The  Tower  and  Westminster  Hall  built. 

098.  Last  Raid  of  Northmen. 

100.  Henry  I.  and  Charter  of  Liberties. 

138.  Anarchy  and  Civil  War. 

157.  Scutage,  or  Shield-Money. 

164.  Constitutions  of  Clarendon  ;  and  the  Assize,  1166. 

169.  Invasion  of  Ireland  — 1170.    Murder  of  Becket, 

176.  Assize  of  Northampton. — Exchequer  Court. 

185.  Knights  Templars  in  London. 

190-2.   Crusade  against  Saladin. 

205.  Anjou,  Maine,  etc.,  lost. 

215.  Fourth  Lateran  Council. — Magna  Charta  ;  Confirmation,  I2i6i 

224.  Arrival  of  the  Friars. — 1257.   Gold  Coinage. 

258.  First  Parliament. — Provisions  of  Oxford, 

259.  The  Barons'  War. 

264.  Battles  of  Lewes  (May  14),  and  Evesham  (Aug.  4),  1265. 

277.  Invasion  of  Wales. 

279.  Statute  of  Mortmain. 

290.  Expulsion  of  jews. — Statute  of  Qtda  Emptoi-es. 

293.  Guienne  lost. 

295.  City  and  Borough  Representatives  in  Parliament. 

296.  Invasion  of  Scotland. — Clergy  outlawed. 

302.  States-General  of  France  convened. 

306.  Robert  Bruce  crowned. 

309.  Lords  Ordainers  appointed. 

314.  Battle  of  Bannockburn  (June  14). 

323.  Independence  of  Scotland  acknowledged. 

331.  Silk- weaving  introduced. 

339.  French  Crown  claimed. 

340.  Battles  of  Sluys  (June  24),  and  Cre9y  (Aug.  27),  1346, 
347.  Calais  taken.  —  134S.  The  Black  Death. 

349.  Order  of  Garter. — Statutes  on  Work  and  Wages. 

350.  Origin  of  the  Poor  Law. 

351.  Statute  of  Provisors. 

353.  Praemunire. — Ordinances  of  the  Staple. 

356.  Battle  of  Poitiers  (Sept.  19). 

359.  Rising  of  the  [acquerie.  — 1360.  Treaty  of  Bretigny. 

362.  Judicial  Proceedings  in  English. — •'  Piers  Ploughman.' 

373.  Chaucer's  "Canterburj'  Tales.''-— French  Possessions  again  lost, 

378.  The  Papal  Schism  :   Rome  and  Avignon. 

3S0.  Wycliffe's  Translation  of  the  Bible. 

381.  Wat  Tiler's  Rising. — 1389.    Law  of  Settlement. 

393.  Winchester  School. — 1399.   Order  of  the  Bath. 


HISTORICAL  LANDMARKS.  xxvli 

1401.  Statute  for  Burning  Heretics. — Persecution  of  Lollards, 

1413.  St.  Andrews  University. 

14 14.  Claims  on  France  revived. 

1415.  Battle  of  Agincourt  (Oct.  25). 
1417.  Lord  Cobham  burned. 

1430.  Forty  Shilling  Freeholders.  — 1431.  Joan  of  Arc  burned. 

1435.  tjraduated  Income  and  Property  Tax. 

1439.  Glasgow  University. — 1450.   Cade's  Insurrection. 

1451.  Normandy  lost.  — 1453.   Turks  capture  Constantinople. 
1455- 1485.   Wars  of  Roses. 

1477.  William  Caxton  and  the  Art  of  Printing. 

I4S5.  Battle  of  Bosworth  Field  (Aug.  22).— Sweating  Sickness. 

i486.  Court  of  Star  Chamber  established. 

I4S7.  Changes  in  Land  Tenure. 

1492.  America  discovered. 

1495.  Poynings  Act  for  Ireland.  * 

1497.  Cape  ot  Good  Hope  Route  to  India. 
Cabot's  North  An'icrican  Discoveries. 

150S.  League  of  Cambray. — 1511.  Holy  League. 

1 513.  Battle  of  Flodden  (Sept.  7). 

1 5 14.  Trinity  Corporation. — Erasmus  and  Greek  Testament. 
J  517.  Luther  denounces  Indulgences. 

1 5 18.   College  of  Physicians. 

1520.  Field  of  Cloth  of  Gold. 

1521.  Diet  of  Worms. 

1525.   Peasants'  War  in  Germany. — Tyndale's  New  Testament 

1527.   Capture  and  Sack  of  Rome. 

1529.   Fall  of  Wolsey.  — 1530.  Diet  of  Augsburg. 

1 53 1.   Royal  Supremacy  asserted. 

1533.  Appeals  to  Rome  illegal. — Annates  abolished. 
Divorce  of  Henry  VIII. — Cranmer  Archbishop. 

1534.  Acts  of  Supremacy  and  Succession. 
Revolt  of  the  Geraldines  in  Ireland. 

1535.  Fisher  and  Moore  beheaded. —Coverdale's  Bible. 

1536.  Lesser  Monasteries  dissolved. — Pilgrimage  of  Grace. 
Ten  Articles  of  Religion. — Wales  incorporated. 

1539.   Greater  Monasteries  surrendered. — Parish  Registers. 

The  Great  Bible.- — Act  of  .Six  Articles. 
1542.    Battle  of  Solway  Moss  (Nov.  25). 
1545.  Council  of  Trent. — Chantries  suppressed. 

Wishart  burned  at  St.  Andrews. 
1548.   First  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  and  Uniformity  Act. 

1552.  Second  Act,  and  Prayer  Book. 

1553.  Canon  Law  and  Articles  of  Religion. 

1554.  Reconciliation  Parliament. 
1555-8.   The  Marian  Martyrs. 

1557.   Calais  lost.  —  First  Scotti.sh  Covenant. 

1559.  Royal  Supremacy  restored. — Third  Act  of  Uniformity. 

1560.  Geneva  bible. 

1562.    '  Gorlioduc  '  ;  the  First  English  Tragedy. — Thirty-nine  Articles, 
1567.   Presbyterianism  established  in  Scotland. 


xxviii  HISTORICAL  LANDMARKS. 

1568.  The  Bishop's  Bible.  — 1570.    Royal  Exchange  built. 

1572.   Massacre  of  St.   Bartholomew's  Day  in  France  (Aug.   24). — 

Dutch  Struggle  for  liberty. 
1572.  Compulsory  Poor  Relief.  — 1576.  Martin  Frobisher's  Discoveries. 
1577.   J  brake's  Circumnavigation. 
1581.  Je'Suits  and  Seminary  Priests. 

1583.   High  Commission  Court. — 1584.   Colony  of  Virginia. 
1587.   Shakspere  in  London.  —  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  executed. 
15S8.   Spanish  Armada. — Martin  Marprelate  Tracts. 
1589.   Lee's  Stocking- Frame. — 1590.   Spencer's  '  Faerie  Queene.' 
1591.   Dublin  University. — 1592.   Bills  of  Mortality. 
1593.  Conventicle  Act. — Hooker's  '  Lcclesiastical  Polity.' 
I597'   Parochial  Overseers. —Bacon's  'Essays.' 
1598.   Edict  of  Nantes. — Rebellion  in  Ireland. 

1600.   East  India  Company. — 1602.   Basis  of  Poor  Law. 

1603.  Union  of  English  and  vScottish  Crowns. 
Millenary  Petition. — The  Main  and  Bye  Plots. 

1604.  Hampton  Court  Conference.  — 1605.   Gunpowder  Plot. 
1609-16.   Hudson's  and  Baffin's  Explorations. 

1610.  Plantation  of  Ulster. 

161 1.  Creation  of  Baronets. — Authorised  Version  of  the  Bible. 
1O14.   John  Napier  invents  Logarithms. 

1618.   Book  of  Sports. — Thirty  Years'  War  in  Germany. 

1620.   Pilgrim  Fathers  of  New  England. 

1626.  Ship- Money  and  Forced  Loans.  — 1628.  Petition  of  Right. 

1628.  Harvey  demonstrates  Circulation  of  the  Blood. 

1629.  Puritans  of  Massachusetts. 
Parliament  di.^solved  for  Eleven  Years. 

1632.  Death  of  Sir  John  Eliot  in  the  Tower. 

1633.  Milton's  '  L' Allegro  '  and  '  II  Penseroso.' 
Connecticut  settled  ;  and  Marjdand,  1634. 

1636.  Episcopacy  imposed  on  Scotland. 

1637.  Liturgy  Riots  in  Edinburgh. — John  Hampden's  Case. 

1638.  National  Covenant. — Chillingworth's  '  Religion  of  Protestants.' 

1640.  Short  Parliament. — Scots  enter  England. — Long  Parliament. 

1 64 1.  Triennial  Act. — Strafford  executed. 

High  Commission  and  Star  Chamber  Courts  abolished, 
(kand  Remonstrance  (Dec.  i). — Irish  Protestant  Massacre. 

1642.  Attempted  Arrest  of  Five  .Members  (Jan.  4). 
Bishops  removed  from  Parliament  (Feb.  5). 

Outbreak    of    Civil    War    (Aug.    22).  —  Battle    of    Edgehill 

(Oct.  26). 
Sir  Thomas  Browne's  'Religio  Medici.' 

1643.  Excise  imposed. — Battle  of  Newbury  (Sept.  2o). 
Episcopacy  abolished  (Nov.  5). 

Committee  for  Scandalous  Ministers. 
Westminster  Assembly  of  Divines. 
Solemn  League  and  Covenant. 

1644.  Milton's  '  Areopagitica.'— Battle  of  Marston  IMoor  (July  2), 

1645.  Battle  of  Naseby  (June  14). — Self-denying  Ordinance. 

1646.  Charles  surrenders  to  the  Scots  (May  6). 


HISTORICAL  LANDMARKS.  xxlx 

1647.  Who  give  him  up  to  the  English  (Feb.  3). 
Jeremy  Taylor's  '  Liberty  of  Prophesying,' 

1648.  Battle  of  Preston  (Aug.  27).  —  Pride's  Purge  (Dec.  7). 

1649.  Execution  of  Charles  1.  (Jan.  29). 
1649-60.    The  Commonwealth. 

1650.  Milton's  '  Defence  of  the  People  of  England.' 

Battles  of  Dunbar  (Sept.  3),  and  Worcester  (Sept.  3),  1651. 

165 1.  Hobbes's  Leviathan, — Navigation  Act. 

1652.  Madras  Presidency. — War  with  Holland. 

1653.  Kump  Parliament  dispersed.- — Baxter's  'Saint's  Rest.' 
Dutch  Supremacy  broken. — Cromwell  Protector  (Dec.  16). 

1654.  His  First  Parliament  (Sept.  3). 

1655.  The  Major-Generals. — Conquest  of  Jamaica. — The  Triers. 

1656.  Second  Parliament  (Sept.  17). 

1658.  Cromwell's  Death  (Sept.  3). 

1659.  Rump  Parliament  restored  (May  8). 

1660.  Convention  Parliament  (April  25). — Stuarts  recalled  (May  8) 

1661.  Savoy  Conference  (April). — Corporation  Act. 

1662.  Revised  Prayer  Book.  —  P'ourth  Act  of  Uniformity. 
Ejectment  of  Two  Thousand  Clergymen  (Aug.  24). 
Royal  Society.  ^ — Bombay  ceded  by  Portugal. 

1664.  Triennial  Act  repealed. — Second  Conventicle  Act. 
Great  Plague  of  London. — Butler's  '  Hudibras,' 

1665.  Five-Mile  Act. — Newton's  Theory  of  Fluxions. 

1666.  Great  P'ire  of  London. 

1667.  Milton's  'Paradise  Lost.' — Dutch  in  the  Medway, 
Triple  Alliance  (Jan.  23).— Hudson's  Bay  Territory, 

1670.  Cabal  Ministry.  — 1673.  Exchequer  closed. — Test  Act. 

1677.  Bunyan's  '  Pilgrim's  Progress.' — 1678.    Popish  Plot, 

1679.  Habeas  Corpus  Act. — Scottish  Covenanters. 

1680.  Trade  begun  with  China. — Exclusion  Bill. 

1 68 1.  Dryden's  '  Absalom  and  Achitophel.' 
1602.  Pennsylvania  settled. 

Municipal  Charters  annulled. 

1683.  Rye  House  Plot. — Russell  and  Sydney  beheaded. 

1684.  Australia  partly  coasted  by  Dampier. 

1685.  Battle  of  Sedgemoor  (July  6). — Jeffrey's  Bloody  Circuit< 
Revocation  of  Edict  of  Nantes  (Oct.  22). 
Spitalfields'  Velvet-Weaving. 

1686.  The  Dispensing  Power. 

1687.  Declaration  of  Indulgence. — Newton's  '  Principia.' 
16S8.  The  Seven  Bishops. — Life  Assurance  begun. 

William  of  Orange  lands  in  Torbay  (Nov,  5). 
Palatinate  devastated  by  Louis  XIV. 

1689.  Toleration  Act. — Siege  of  Derry. 
The  Nonjurors. — War  with  France. 

1690.  Battle  of  the  Boyne  (July  i).  —Bill  of  Rights. 
1692.   Irish  Penal  Code. 

1694,   Bank  of  England  established. 

1697.  Peace  of  Ryswick  (Sept.  20). 

1698,  Savery  and  the  Steam-Engine. — Calcutta  acquired. 
Society  fur  Promoting  Christian  Knowledge. 


XXX  HISTORICAL  LANDMARKS. 

1701.  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  Society. 

Act  of  Settlement  — War  of  Spanish  Succession, 
1704.   Gibraltar  taken  (July  24).  —  Battle  of  Blenheim  (Aug.  13). 
1707.  Act  of  Union  with  Scotland  (May  i). 
1709.    '  The  Tatier.'— !7ii.    '  The  Spectator.' — Stamp  Act. 
171 1.   Property  Qualification  Members  of  Parliament. 

1713.  Treaty  of  Utrecht  (April  11),  Newfoundland,  New  Brunswick, 

and  Nova  Scotia  acquired, 

1714.  Schism  Act.  — 1715.   Jacobite  Risings. — Riot  Act. 

1 7 16.  Septennial  Parliaments. 

1717.  Tiiple  Alliance  :   Great  Britain,  France,  and  Holland. 

1718.  Quadruple  Alliance.     Germany  added, 

1 7 19.  Trinitarian  Controversy, 

1720.  South  Sea  Bubble, 

1722,   Inoculation  for  Small-Pox. 

We^leys  and  Whitfield,  and  the  Methodist  Movement. 
1732.   Walpole's  Excise  Project. 
1739-1748.   War  with  Spain. 

1745.  Battle  of  Fontenoy  (May  11). — Second  Jacobite  Rising. 

1746.  Battle  of  CuUoden  (Apr.  16). 
1748.   Treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  (Apr.  l). 

1751.  CUve  captures  Arcot.  — 1752.  Calendar  reformed. 

1756.  Strutt's  Stocking- Frame. 

1757.  Battle  of  Plassey  (June  23). 
1759.  Quebec  captured  (Sept.  13). 

1 76 1.   Bridgewater  Canal.  — 1763.   Wedgwood's  Pottery. 
1765.   James  Watt  and  the  Steam-Engine. 

1767-76.   Hargreave's,     Arkwright's,     and      Crompton's      Spinning 
Inventions. 

1768.  American  Colonies  revolt. — Royal  Academy  Charter. 

1769.  Junius'  Letters.  — 1770.   Captain  Cook's  Voyages. 

1774.  First  American  Congress.  — 1775.     Bunker's  Hill  Battle. 

1776.  American  Declaration  of  Independence. 

1777.  Howard  and  Prison  Reform. 
1780.  Sunday  Schools  established. 
1782.  Grattan  s  Irish  Parliament. 

1784.  Board  of  Control  for  India. — Mail  Coaches. 

1785.  Warren  Hastings'  Trial. — Sydney,  New  South  Wales. 

1789.  French  Revolution. 

1790.  Representative  Government  in  Canada. 
1 793-1802.    First  Great  War  with  France. 

1796.  Jenner  and  Vaccination. 

1797.  Battles  of  St.  Vincent  (Feb.  4),  and  Camperdown  (Oct.  II). 
Mutinies  at  the  Nore  and  Spithead. 

Trinidad  acquired  from  Spain. 

1798.  Battle  of  Nile. — Irish  Rebellion.  —  Income  Tax. 

1800.  Conquest  of  the  Karnatic,  and  Marhatta  War. 

1801.  Union  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland. 

1802.  Treaty  of  Amiens  (Mar.  27).  —  'Edinburgh  Review.' 
1803-15.    vSecond  French  War. 

1S03.   Battle  of  Assay e  (Sept.  23).— Delhi,  Agra,  &c.,  annexed. 


HISTORICAL  LANDMARKS.  xxxi 

1803.   Tasmania  settled. — British  Guiana  acquired. 
li)05.   British  and  Foreign  School  Society. 

Baltic  of  Trafalgar  (Oct.  21). 
1806.   Death  of  Pitt  and  Fox. 
1S07.   Slave  Trade  abolished. ^ — Gas-lighting. 
1S12.  Dispute  with  America. — Brewster's  Dioptric  Lighthouse. 

1814.  Restoration  of  Bourbons. — Cape  Colony  ceded. 

1815.  Battle  of  Waterloo  (fune  18). — Corn  Laws. 
Sir  Humphry  Davy's  Safety-Lamp. 

1S19.   The  Six  Acts. — Feterloo  Alassacre. 

1821.    Rise  of  Railroad  System.  —  Gold  Coast  Colony. 

1823.    Mechanics'  Institutes.  — 1824.    Burmese  War. 

1827.  Battle  of  Navarino  (Oct.  20). 

1828.  Test  and  Corporation  Acts  repealed. 

1829.  Catholic  Emancipation. — West  Australia. — Police  ForcCi 

1830.  Revolution  in  France. — Belgium  independent. 
Liverpool  and  Manchester  Railway. 

1831.  Ecclesiastical  Commission. — London  Bridge  built. 

1832.  Reform  Bill.  —  Irish  Church  Temporalities  Act. 
Morse's  Electric  Telegraph.  —  Steel  Pens. 

1833.  China  Trade  opened. — '  Tracts  for  Times.' 

1834.  Poor  Law  Amendment.  —  Houses  of  Parliament  burned. 
Colonial  Slavery  abolished  (Aug.  l). — Kaffir  War. 
South  Australia.  —  National  Education. 

1835.  Municipal  Corporations  Act. 

1836.  Registration  ot  Births  and  Deaths. — Civil  Marriages  Act. 

1837.  Rebellion  in  Canada. — Tithe  Commutation. 
Accession  of  Queen  Victoria  (June  20). 

1838.  Chartist  Movement. — Anti-Corn  Law  League. 
Afghan  War. — First  Transatlantic  Steamship. 

1839.  Daguerreotype. — Committee  of  Council  for  Education. 
Canadian  Revolt.— War  with  China. — Aden  occupied. 

1840.  Penny  Postage. — 1841.   New  Zealand. 

1842.  Income  Tax  Reimposed. 

1843.  Scottish  Church  Disruption. — Natal  and  Scinde  annexed. 

1844.  Bank  Act. — Sikh  War. 

1845.  Potato  Disease. — Irish   Famine. — Maynooth  Grant. — General 

Enclosure  Act. 

1846.  Corn  Laws  repealed. — Railway  Mania. 

1847.  Anaesthetics. — Sewing  Machines.— Factory  Act. 

1848.  Gold  in  California. — Poor  Law  Board. — French  Revolution. 

1849.  Navigation  Laws  repealed. — Cholera  in  London. 

1850.  Gold  in  Australia. —  First  Submarine  Cable. 

1851.  Ecclesiastical  Titles  Bill.  —  l:)urmese  War. 
Window  Duty  abolished.  —  House  Duty  imposed. 
Religious  Worship  Census. — Great  Exhibition. 

1852.  French  Empire  revived  by  Napoleon  III.  (Dec.  2). 

1853.  Vienna  Conference. — Canada  Clergy  Reserves. 

1854.  Crimean  War.  —  Balaklava  Charge  (Oct.  25). — Battle  of  Inker- 

mann. — lapan  Commercial  Treaty. 

1855.  Sebastopol  captured. — Civil  Service  Commission. 

1856.  Aniline  Dyes. — Bessemer  Steel.— Oudh  annexed. 


xxxii  HISTORICAL  LANDMARKS. 

1856.  Livingstone's  African  Explorations. — Natal. 

1857.  Indian  Muliny. — Limited  Liability  System. 

1858.  Atlantic  Cable. — Volunteers. — Jews  in  Parliament. 
Government  of  India  Bill. — British  Columbia. 

1859.  Handel  Festival. — War  in  Italy. — Queensland. 

J  860,   Commercial  Treaty  with  France. — ■  Essays  and  Reviews." 

1861.  Paper  Duties  abolished.  —  Post  Office  Savings'  Banks. 
American  Civil  War. — Prince  Consort's  Death. 

1862.  Lancashire  Cotton  Famine. — International  E.\hibition. 
1863    Ashanti  War. — Metropolitan  Railway. 

1865.  Cattle  Plague. — Jamaica  Negro  Insurrection. 

1866.  '  Black  Friday.' — Bank  Act  suspended. 
War  of  Prussia  and  Italy  with  Austria. 

1867.  Derby- Disraeli  Reform  Bill. — Dominion  of  Canada, 
Royal  Commission  on  Ritualism. — Pan-Anglican  Synod. 

1868.  Compulsory  Church  Rates  abolished, — Fenian  Raid  in  Canada. 
Disraeli's  First  Ministiy  (Feb.). — Gladstone's  (Dec), 

1869.  Irish  Church  Disestablished, 

1870.  Franco-German  War. — Irish  Land  Act. 
Elementary  Education. — Manitoba  Province  formed, 

1871.  Fisheries  Commission,  Washington. 

Universities  thrown  open. — Army  Purchase  abolished. 

1872.  Geneva  Arbitration. — Agricultural  Labourers'  Union. — Ballot 

Act  passed. 
1874.   Disraeli's  Second  Ministry  (Feb,). — Public  Worship  Regulation 

Act. — Ecumenical  Council, — Fiji  Islands  ceded. 
1S75.  Judicature  Act. 
1876.   Bulgarian  Atrocities.  — Queen  declared  Empress  of  India. 

1878.  Berlin  Conference. — Cyprus  acquired. -^Suez  Canal  Shares, 

1879.  Zulu  War. — Transvaal  annexed, 
18S0.   Gladstone's  Second  Ministry  (April), 
1S80-82.   Afghan  War. — Egyiit  occupied. 

1 88 1.  Flogging  abolished  in  Army  and  Navy. 

1882.  Bombardment  of  Alexandria, — Electric  Lighting  Act. — Murder 

of  Lord  Frederick  Cavendish  and  Mr  Burke. 

1884.  County  Franchise  enlarged. — Redistribution  Bill. 

1885.  New  Guinea  acquired,  and  Upper  Burmah. 

Marquis   of   Salisbury's    First    Ministry    (June    24). — General 
Election  (Nov.). 

1886.  British  Protectorate  at  Zanzibar, 

Third   Gladstone   Ministry  (Feb,  to  Aug). — Home  Rule  Bill 

defeated  on  Second  Reading. — General  Election  (July), 
Second  Salisbury  Ministry  (Aug,  3). 

1887.  Jubilee  of  Queen  Victoria. 

1892.  Death  of  Duke  of  Clarence  and  Avondale  (Jan.  14). 
General  Election  (July). — Fourth  Gladstone  Ministry  (Aug.  18). 

1893.  Irish  Home  Rule  Bill  rejected  by  Lords. 
Parish  and  District  Councils. 

1894.  Rosebery  Ministry  (Feb.). 

1895.  Salisbury's  Third  Ministry  (July).— General  Election  (July), 


Period  I.— INCEPTION. 

To  A.D.  1066. 
Chapter. 

I. — Myths,  Legends,  and  Romances. 


— The  Romans  in  Britain. 

— National  Accretion  and  Formation. 

— Saxon  Laws  and  Usages. 

— Rise  of  Ecclesiasticism. 

— A  Final  Contest  of  Races. 


CHAPTER  I. 

MYTHS,    LEGENDS,    AND   ROMANCES. 

History  is  the  study  of  humanity;  not  in  an  ideal 
condition,  but  as  it  actually  existed.  Sometimes,  it  has 
been  written  so  as  to  resemble  an  arid  Sahara,  or  an 
endless  range  of  catacombs,  unpeopled  by  living  men. 
At  other  times,  it  is  a  dull  and  petty  record  of  the 
sayings  and  doings  of  princes  and  potentates ;  of 
warriors  and  statesmen ;  of  titled  brigands  and  legal 
schemers.  Cowper  says,  in  the  Third  Book  of  '  The 
Task,' — "  Some  write  a  narrative  of  wars,  and  feats  of 
heroes  little  known,  and  call  the  rant  a  history."  But 
the  true  historian  has  to  deal  not  merely  with  the  rise 
and  fall  of  dynasties  and  families ;  with  Court  cabals 
and  backstairs  intrigues ;  with  ceremonies  of  State 
and  military  parade ;  with  diplomatic  negotiations  and 
squabbles  for  precedence,  however  interesting  these 
details  may  be  to  what  Carlyle  terms  the  flunkey 
tribe,  and  to  the  professional  warrior.  Attention  must 
not  be  concentrated  upon  the  doings  of  kings  and 
cabinets,  of  eager  partisans  and  keen  placemen,  of 
rival  politicians  and  scheming  ecclesiastics,  and  of  the 
clamorous  crowd  who  strutted  and  fumed  their  little 
hour  upon  the  stage.  If  a  modern  reader  craves  for 
such  details,  they  are  to  be  found  in  superabundance  in 
works  specially  devoted  to  Court  millinery  and  uphol- 
stery. In  them  may  be  seen  copious  records  of  royal 
imbecility,  of  palace  scandals,  of  political  huckstering, 
of  factious  strife,  of  official  corruption,  of  battles  and 
sieges,  and  of  all  the  accidents  and  excrescences  of 
former  times.  Their  ei:sentials  must  be  sought  else- 
where. 


EXAGGERATED  INDIVIDUALISM.  3 

No  heresy  is  more  common  than  to  regard  the  minute 
delineation  of  individual  and  family  intrigues,  important 
only  in  a  factitious  and  transient  sense,  under  such 
deluding  words  as  royalties  and  dynasties,  with  all  their 
ambition,  blunders,  foibles,  and  crimes,  as  constituting 
the  vital  essence  of  a  nation's  career.  It  is  important 
to  exhibit  tlie  Commonwealth,  as  distinct  from  what  is 
called  the  State ;  the  People,  as  distinct  from  the  titular 
Monarch ;  and  the  National  Life,  as  distinct  from  the 
trivial  circumstances  of  the  hour.  The  fallacy  is  both 
absurd  and  pernicious  that  represents  the  personal 
character  and  conduct  of  one  man  as  irresistibly  directing 
the  course  and  fixing  the  destiny  of  a  nation.  Changes 
in  its  laws,  religion,  policy,  usages,  or  opinions  have  been 
erroneously  ascribed  to  the  action  or  influence  of  an 
individual  monarch,  a  politician,  or  an  ecclesiastic.  It 
is  more  accurate  to  say  that  they  sprung  from  favouring 
circumstances  and  from  remote  and  varied  causes ;  often 
with  little  aid  from  rulers ;  and  sometimes  in  spite  of 
their  antagonism.  They  were  more  likely  to  retard  than 
to  assist  true  development,  if  they  perceived — which  is 
very  doubtful — its  trend  and  force.  The  social  life,  the 
industrial  growth,  the  expanding  intelligence,  the  per- 
manent welfare,  and  the  collective  character  of  a  people, 
with  adequate  protection  to  their  common  rights  and 
the  reasonable  enjoyment  of  liberties,  are  of  higher  im- 
port than  the  personal  story  of  king  or  prince,  legislator 
or  prelate,  administrator  or  general.  Dr.  Johnson  said 
that  he  wished  to  have  the  history  of  manners  and  of 
common  life  well  done.  In  his  day,  the  only  attempt 
of  the  kind  was  made  by  Dr.  Robert  Henry,  whose  plan, 
embracing  several  arbitrary  and  artificial  divisions  of 
subjects,  and  afterwards  followed  by  the  authors  of  the 
'  Pictorial  History  of  England,'  was  carried  out  as  well 
as  such  a  method  permitted,  with  the  limited  range  of 
information  then  available. 

Many  of  the  monarchs  who  have  nominally  swayed 
the  English  sceptre  are  undeserving  of  the  time  and 
space  usually  bestowed  upon  them.  They  failed  in  the 
five  famous  things  of  which  Bacon  says  all  kings  should 
have  special  care,  if  they  would  not  have  the  crown  to 
be    but    unhappy    felicity.      Weak,    selfish,    vulgar,    and 


4      MYTHS,  LEGENDS,  AND  ROMANCES,     [chap.  i. 

time-serving ;  arbitrary,  obstinate,  and  vindictive ; 
given  to  self-seeking,  ambition,  and  favouritism  ;  capri- 
cious and  false ;  prostituting  their  high  office  to  ignol)le 
ends ;  wasteful  in  war  and  corrupt  in  peace ;  often 
setting  an  odious  example  of  folly,  idleness,  and  vice, 
most  of  them  are  unworthy  of  the  name  of  rulers.  The 
kingcraft  of  the  world,  whether  ancient  or  modern,  is 
not  deserving  of  much  respect.  Its  glitter  and  blazonry, 
its  pageants  and  ceremonies,  its  wearisome  nothings  and 
laborious  frivolity,  its  hollow  ambitions  and  sordid  aims, 
are  duly  recorded  with  sounding  vacuity  by  the  Court 
Newsmen,  who,  regarding  monarchy  as  a  fetish,  are 
dazzled  by  what  Milton  calls  "  the  tedious  pomp  that 
waits  on  princes."  Born  kings  of  men,  whether  decked 
or  not  in  coronation  robes,  always  exercise  a  legitimate 
sway,  and  leave  an  impress  on  their  age.  Of  the 
occupants  of  the  English  throne,  certainly  not  more  than 
ten,  and  perhaps  not  so  many,  possessed  the  truly  regal 
character.  Such,  though  varying  in  intellectual  ability,  in 
moral  worth,  and  in  commanding  influence,  were  yElfred, 
William  I.,  Henry  II.,  Edward  I.,  Edward  III.,  Henry 
VIII.,  Elizabeth,  Oliver  Cromwell,  and  William  III. 

Thucydides  made  it  a  proud  boast  on  behalf  of  Attira, 
that  while  other  lands  were  noted  for  their  corn,  their 
wine,  or  their  oil,  the  celebrity  of  his  native  state  was 
derived  from  its  men.  In  like  manner,  England  boasts 
of  a  long  and  illustrious  line  of  true  heroes,  patriots,  and 
benefactors.  Bceda  and  Roger  Bacon ;  Wycliffe  and 
Chaucer ;  Cardinal  Langton,  Bishop  Grosseteste,  and 
Simon  de  Montfort ;  Wolsey  and  Sir  Thomas  More ; 
Caxton,  Tyndale,  and  Coverdale  ;  Latimer  and  Cranmer  ; 
Bacon,  Shakspere,  and  Spenser;  Richard  Hooker  and 
Jeremy  Taylor ;  Eliot  and  Pym ;  Cromwell  and  Milton ; 
Bunyan  and  Marvell ;  Dryden,  Pope,  and  Goldsmith ; 
Sir  Isaac  Newton  and  James  Watt;  Wesley  and  White- 
field  ;  the  Pitts,  Burke,  and  Fox,  not  to  mention  other 
or  later  names,  form  a  catalogue  of  which  the  country 
may  be  proud.  Of  others,  whose  ignoble  or  contemptible 
words,  and  worse  than  contemptible  deeds,  have  been  so 
circumstantially  recorded  by  the  older  Chroniclers,  it  is 
enough  to  say,  in  the  language  applied  in  Scripture  to 
the  unknown  men  in  patriarchal  times, — "and  he  died." 


CONSTITUTIONAL  CHANGES.  5 

Oblivion  is  the  kindest  thing  that  could  befall  their  poor 
dumb  names.  Many  a  venerable  story,  though  narrated 
by  successive  copyists  with  a  minuteness  that  pretends  to 
accuracy,  proves  to  be  little  else  than  a  fiction  when  sub- 
jected to  careful  scrutiny.  This  will  not  be  surprising 
when  the  difficulty  is  considered  of  arriving  at  the  truth 
of  modern  and  passing  events,  owing  to  careless  observa- 
tion, forgetfulness,  partial  knowledge,  inaccurate  descrip- 
tion, ignorance  of  the  right  use  of  words,  and  conflicting 
testimony. 

The  field  of  inquiry  is  so  large  and  fruitful  that  it  is 
possible  to  cull  abundant  illustrations  of  how  the  England 
of  to-day  was  formed.  It  is  intended  in  the  present  work 
to  bestow  only  a  transient  glance  upon  subordinate  and 
incidental  matters,  while  bringing  into  prominence  those 
of  a  formative  and  permanent  character.  There  have 
been  marked  epochs  and  grave  crises  in  the  national 
history,  which  have  moulded  the  national  life ;  but 
those  epochs  and  crises  were  brought  about  by  a  long 
chain  of  events  and  influences.  Constitutional  changes 
have  been  gradually  developed  from  remote  and  complex 
causes.  Cataclysms  and  convulsions  are  as  rare  in  the 
political  wj>rld  as  in  Nature,  and  they  are  to  be  explained, 
not  by  the  immediate  occasion,  but  by  antecedent 
circumstances.  Usually,  the  changes  are  slow,  gradual, 
noiseless ;  just  as  Day  fades  away  into  Night,  or  as 
Spring  is  evolved  out  of  Winter.  There  have  been 
periods  of  arrest  of  growth,  and  seasons  of  partial  decay. 
In  the  ceaseless  flow  of  years,  modifications  and  develop- 
ments are  effected  in  the  national  character  and  policy. 
Ideal  perfection  is  rarely  sought,  or,  if  sought,  is  never 
attained.  Even  where  a  documentary  Constitution  exists, 
however  faultless  in  its  expression  and  lofty  in  its  aims, 
the  results  are  never  greater  or  nobler  than  the  admini- 
strators. The  English  way  has  been,  not  to  depend  upon 
verbal  expressions  set  forth  on  paper  or  parchment,  but 
to  maintain  a  traditional  spirit  of  freedom,  and  to  apply 
general  principles  as  circumstances  arise.  When  a  wrong 
or  an  injustice  becomes  unbearable,  or  when  some  evil 
needs  to  be  redressed,  public  sentiment  arouses  itself,  and 
a  specific  remedy  is  found.  The  constitutional  liberties 
now  enjoyed,  and  accepted  by  many  as  matters  of  course, 


6      MYTHS,  LEGENDS,  AND  ROMANCES,     [chap.  i. 

were  not  won  without  persistent  effort,  sufferings  nobly 
borne,  frequent  rebuffs  and  reverses,  and  a  resolute 
determination  that  victory  should  at  length  be  achieved. 
It  is  still  true,  as  Curran  said,  that  "  eternal  vigilance  is 
the  price  of  liberty."  The  mercantile  greatness,  the 
social  prosperity,  the  widening  intelligence,  the  far- 
reaching  philanthropy,  and  the  moral  influence  which 
form  the  proud  boast  of  modern  England,  with  her  vast 
Colonial  and  Indian  possessions,  are  the  products  of  seeds 
planted  long  ago.  Civil  and  religious  rights  now  valued 
as  a  priceless  heritage,  were  secured  after  centuries  of 
battle.  Prolonged  and  toilsome  struggles,  occasional 
mistakes  and  crimes,  dark  and  evil  days,  heroic  courage, 
patient  endurance,  and  faithful  testimony  have  been  wit- 
nessed \  resulting  in  steady  advance  towards  all  that  Iree 
men  and  women  hold  dear  and  sacred. 

In  narrating  the  history  of  the  English  people,  it  is 
necessary  to  glance  at  commerce  and  agriculture,  manu- 
factures and  industry,  domestic  manners  and  customs, 
pastimes  and  sports,  diseases  and  medicine,  furniture 
and  meals,  literature,  science,  and  the  arts.  The  sources 
of  information  are  diversified  and  endless.  Chronicles 
and  annals,  ballad  and  song,  statutes  and  public 
records,  contemporary  letters  and  journals,  memoirs 
and  autobiographies,  satires  and  caricatures,  the  homily 
and  the  drama,  inventories  and  assessments,  lists  of  wages 
and  prices,  coins  and  medals,  public  events  and  personal 
anecdotes,  so  far  as  these  are  authenticated,  are  contribu- 
tory to  the  task.  By  their  aid  can  be  seen,  like  a  vivid 
panorama,  the  stately  march  of  former  generations,  and 
the  gradual  construction  of  the  map  of  England ;  that 
most  wonderful  of  all  palimpsests.  We  behold  the  wealth 
and  misery  of  the  passing  age ;  its  triumphs  and  its 
failures ;  its  virtues  and  its  crimes.  We  watch  the 
rearing  of  massive  edifices,  the  expansion  of  trade,  the 
advance  of  civilization,  the  struggles  for  popul  ir  rights 
and  liberties,  and  the  ebb  and  flow  of  the  national  life. 
We  hear  the  din  of  battle,  the  strife  of  debate,  the 
barter  of  the  market,  the  hum  of  the  street,  the  threats 
of  the  tyrant,  the  moans  of  the  oppressed,  the  shouts 
of  the  reveller,  the  rough  jokes  of  the  country  fair,  the 


A  PANORAMA  OF  THE  PAST.  7 

ballad  of  the  minstrel,  the  lay  of  the  troubadour,  and 
the  sermon  of  the  cleric.  Peer  and  peasant,  gentle  and 
simple,  age  and  youth,  the  men  of  action  and  those  of 
reflection,  travellers  in  distant  lands  and  navigators  of 
unknown  seas,  patriots  and  philanthropists,  the  ambi- 
tious rich  and  the  discontented  poor,  pass  by  in  noiseless 
array.  The  merchant  on  'Change,  the  tradesmen  at  his 
counter,  the  artisan  at  his  task,  the  Htigant  in  the 
Courts,  the  recluse  in  his  cell,  the  teacher  and  his 
pupils,  the  toiler  in  the  fields,  the  dweller  in  the  town, 
reveal  themselves  in  their  varying  moods ;  grave  or  gay ; 
sanguine  or  depressed ;  successful  or  disappointed.  As 
in  a  microcosm,  we  see  in  the  England  of  former  times 
a  portraiture  of  the  England  of  to-day ;  for  this  is  a 
product  of  the  Past. 

An  important  contribution  to  constitutional  history 
was  made  by  the  issue  of  the  '  Rolls  of  Parliament,'  from 
the  reign  of  Edward  I.  to  the  first  of  Henry  VII. ;  pur- 
suant to  an  order  of  the  House  of  Lords  in  1767.  The 
'Parliamentary  or  Constitutional  History  of  England,' 
originally  published  in  1752,  was  greatly  expanded  in 
subsequent  editions.  There  are  various  collections  of 
legislative  debates  and  proceedings,  but  William 
Cobbett's  'Parliamentary  History,'  from  1066  to  1803, 
incorporates  or  supersedes  the  earlier  works,  and  is 
continued  under  the  well-known  series  of  '  Hansard.' 
During  this  century,  three  important  sources  of  historical 
information  have  been  made  available.  The  first  com- 
prises the  works  issued  by  the  Record  Commission  ;  one 
of  the  most  valuable  being  the  Statutes  of  the  Realm 
from  the  reign  of  Edward  I.,  with  a  few  of  the  principal 
enactments  under  Henry  III.  They  furnish  curious  and 
authentic  details  of  political  and  religious  movements, 
of  commerce  and  industry,  of  domestic  and  social 
usages,  of  the  growth  and  consolidation  of  popular 
rights,  of  the  gradual  fusion  of  classes,  and  of  relations 
with  foreign  countries.  Many  of  these  topics  are  also 
elucidated  in  the  Journals  of  the  House  of  Lords,  dating 
from  1509,  and  in  those  of  the  Commons,  from  1547; 
and  also  in  the  Rolls  of  Records,  including  those  of  the 
Chancery  and  the  Exchequer,  with  the  Fines  Rolls,  the 
Hundred,  the  Patent,  the  Liberate,  and  the  Close  Roll-, 


8      MYTHS,  LEGENDS,  AND  ROMANCES,     [chap.  i. 

extending  back  to  the  thirteenth  century.  Sir  Francis 
Palgrave's  edition  of  'Calendars  and  Inventories  of  the 
Treasury  of  the  Exchequer,'  some  of  which  were  com- 
piled as  early  as  the  fourteenth  century,  is  interesting, 
as  exhibiting  the  ancient  modes  in  which  records  were 
preserved.  Sir  T.  Duffus  Hardy,  in  his  Preface  to  the 
Close  Rolls  of  King  John,  and  Joseph  Hunter,  in  his 
Preface  to  the  Fines  of  Richard  I.  and  John,  also  furnish 
many  curious  particulars.  The  second  source  of  informa- 
tion is  found  in  the  series  of  '  Chronicles  and  Memorials 
of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,'  published  by  the  authority 
of  Parliament,  under  the  direction  of  the  Master  of  the 
Rolls ;  being  careful  reprints  of  the  best  works  of  the 
kind,  from  the  most  reliable  copies,  edited  and  anno- 
tated by  competent  scholars.  The  third  series  consists 
of  the  'Calendars  of  State  Papers,'  entombed  in  the 
national  repositories,  often  tied  up  in  the  original 
bundles,  and  never  having  seen  the  light  since  they 
were  first  put  away  by  official  hands  long  since  crumbled 
to  dust.  These  papers  have  been  brought  together  and 
properly  arranged  in  the  new  Record  Office  in  Fetter 
Lane,  London,  from  the  scattered  and  unsuitable 
receptacles  where  they  had  lain  mouldering  for  genera- 
tions. Many  documents  of  priceless  value  have  also 
been  brought  to  light  in  private  collections.  It  was 
formerly  the  custom  for  Secretaries  of  State  and  other 
high  functionaries  to  retain  the  papers  connected  with 
their  respective  offices.  The  Flistorical  Manuscripts 
Commission  is  rendering  public  service  by  examining 
and  reporting  upon  such  collections. 

The  information  supplied  by  these  various  documents, 
rescued  from  oblivion  and  decay,  serves  to  correct,  by 
enlarging  or  modifying,  opinions  and  statements  long 
current ;  to  clear  up  doubtful  and  disputed  pointS*;  and 
to  throw  incidental  and  collateral  light  on  many  subjects 
of  interest  alike  to  the  student  and  the  patriot.  Thus 
far,  three  hundred  and  fifty  volumes  of  the  Rolls  Series 
have  been  issued.  They  are  by  no  means  of  equal  value. 
Of  the  many  thousands  of  documents  calendared  with 
such  laborious  care,  it  must  be  said  that  a  large  portion 
form  a  hortus  siccus  of  uninteresting  and  useless  details. 
Life  is  not  long  enough  to  search  among  so  many  bushels 


SOURCES  OF  INFORMATION.  9 

of  chaff  for  a  few  valuable  grains  of  wheat.  The  bulk 
and  the  multitude  of  the  Calendars  would  render  them 
almost  useless,  but  for  their  complete  indices  and  the 
introductory  historical  matter ;  written,  on  the  whole,  with 
impartiality.  The  early  annalists,  and  the  older  school 
of  antiquaries  discharged  toilsome  but  important  duties. 
Their  plodding  labours  —  beaver-like  in  their  habitual 
industry  —  cannot  be  overlooked.  The  critical  faculty 
and  the  power  of  generalisation  had  not  been  awakened 
in  their  day.  The  only  thread  of  connection  was  the 
order  of  time ;  so  that  the  events,  as  recorded,  have  no 
more  relation  to  one  another  than  so  many  beads  on  a 
string.  They  did  not  possess  the  discernment  requisite 
to  perceive  the  proportionate  value  of  much  that  they 
reproduced,  and  subsequent  investigators  have  to  deal 
with  a  heterogeneous  mass  of  matter  that  is  largely 
useless.  Accomplished  and  painstaking  modern  writers 
have  made  a  special  study  of  certain  eras  and  epochs  of 
constitutional  history,  representative  government,  and 
administrative  methods,  of  the  origin  and  growth  of 
institutions,  of  the  course  of  religious  thought,  of 
ecclesiastical  changes,  of  the  ample  and  ramifying 
streams  of  English  literature,  of  social  economics,  of 
manufactures,  industry  and  commerce,  and  of  the 
biographies  of  distinguished  men  in  relation  to  their 
times  and  to  great  events. 

It  is  impossible  to  consider  the  history  of  one  country 
apart  from  the  general  movements  which  affected  other 
countries ;  sweeping  over  continents  and  hemispheres 
like  a  great  tidal  wave.  Such,  for  example,  were  the 
Crusades  and  the  Black  Death  ;  the  discovery  of  America 
and  the  opening  of  the  Orient  to  commerce  ;  new  methods 
of  warfare ;  the  Revival  of  Learning  and  the  Art  of 
Printing ;  the  growth  of  the  Middle  and  Trading 
Classes  and  the  widening  of  Travel ;  developments  of 
Science  ;  the  Reformation  ;  the  deadly  struggle  between 
Spain  and  England,  between  Spain  and  the  Netherlands, 
and  between  France  and  England  ;  the  French  Revolu- 
tion, the  rise  of  Democracy,  and  important  Mechanical 
Inventions.  Foreign  authors  like  Thierry,  Guizot, 
Taine,  Michelet,  Motley,  Merle  d'Abubigne,  Lappenberg, 
Pauli,    Schlegel,    de    Bonnechose,    Buddensieg,    Heercn, 


lo    MYTHS,  LEGENDS,  AND  ROMANCES,     [chap.  I. 

Lechler,  Loserth,  Thiers,  Ullmann,  and  Hausser  have 
rendered  signal  service  in  this  respect ;  entitling  them 
to  be  esteemed  far  beyond  the  limits  of  mere  nationality. 
Especial  recognition  is  due  to  the  modern  school  of 
German  writers  on  systems  of  government  and  on  the 
development  of  constitutional  principles  ;  like  von  Maurer, 
Waitz,  Gneist,  Bluntschli,  Gellken,  and  von  Ranke ; 
although  facts  are  sometimes  made  to  bend  to  their 
preconceived  theories. 

As  the  present  work  is  designed  for  popular  reading, 
its  pages  are  not  burdened  with  footnotes  giving  the 
authorities.  The  utmost  care  has  been  taken  to  ensure 
correctness,  to  verify  every  statement,  and  to  use  all 
available  information.  The  difficulty  in  these  modern 
days  of  widening  knowledge  and  of  fresh  researches  and 
discoveries,  of  becoming  acquainted  with  all  that  has 
been  written  on  a  given  subject,  can  be  realised  only  by 
those  who  have  essayed  the  task.  Ordinary  readers 
have  no  conception  of  the  prolonged  and  toilsome  labour 
of  examining  authorities  ;  verifying  facts  and  dates  ; 
weighing  conflicting  evidence ;  forming  an  impartial 
judgment  of  men  and  events ;  tracing  the  course  of 
public  opinion,  with  its  constant  ebb  and  flow  ;  exhibit- 
ing causes  and  effects  in  gradual  changes  ;  and  preserving 
a  just  equipoise,  so  as  to  maintain  historical  sequence 
and  continuity.  It  is  hoped  and  believed  that  contro- 
versial matters  are  presented  fairly,  with  due  regard 
to  the  circumstances,  and  not  claiming  infallibility. 
Standard  authorities  are  named,  wherever  needful ;  so 
that  any  branch  of  the  subject  may  be  pursued  in  detail. 
To  these,  and  to  the  copious  Bibliographical  List, 
reference  may  be  made,  without  risking  Pope's  censure 
of 

"  The  bookful  blockhead,  ignorantly  read, 
With  loads  of  learned  lumber  in  his  head." 

Of  the  early  history  of  the  country  now  called  Great 
Britain,  not  much  is  known.  The  oldest  written  accounts 
in  existence  describe  persons  who  are  said  to  have  lived, 
and  occurrences  alleged  to  have  taken  place,  hundreds 
of  years  before.  Such  statements  must  have  been  ob- 
tained  from    tradition,    which    swiftly   melts    away    into 


TRANS  CRIP  TS  A  ND  EMBELLISHMENTS.        1 1 

legend  and  myth.  How  far  these  tales  are  true,  cannot 
now  be  determined.  That  some  are  visionary,  and  that 
others  received  additions  from  time  to  time,  is  certain. 
No  story  can  be  repeated  by  different  persons,  or  even  by 
the  same  person  at  various  times,  in  precisely  the  same 
words.  Hence  the  true  and  the  false,  the  real  and  the 
fanciful,  the  historical  and  the  legendary,  become  inex- 
tricably mixed  and  confused.  There  is  a  shadowy  region 
where  fables  and  romantic  stories  abound  ;  many  of  them 
being  obviously  inaccurate,  absurd,  and  impossible.  The 
poetic  hcense  of  bards  is  certain  to  invent  details,  and  to 
supply  breadth  of  colouring,  so  as  to  produce  an  effect. 
Oral  tradition  is  modified  or  enlarged  as  it  is  transmitted 
from  age  to  age.  When  the  old  monks  who  wrote  their 
Chronicles  eight  hundred  or  a  thousand  years  ago,  speak 
of  things  which  are  supposed  to  have  happened  long 
before,  caution  must  be  exercised  in  deciding  how  far 
they  are  worthy  of  credence.  They  may  not  have 
intended  to  mislead,  but  nearly  all  of  them  were  so 
enamoured  of  the  strange,  the  marvellous,  and  the  pro- 
fessedly miraculous,  that  they  gave  the  reins  to  their 
imagination,  and  often  wrote  as  if  they  had  really  wit- 
nessed the  scenes  described  ;  like  Hafen  Slawkenbergius 
and  his  description  of  noses,  in  Sterne's  '  Tristram 
Shandy.'  Their  circumstantial  statements  about  people 
who  lived  in  this  island  soon  after  the  Flood,  about 
events  that  are  supposed  to  have  transpired,  and  about 
long  lines  of  nominal  kings  and  potentates,  must  be  set 
aside  as  mere  inventions.  These  monks  merely  told 
what  they  had  heard,  or  they  copied  from  earlier 
writers  ;  adding  numerous  points  in  order  to  expand  and 
embellish  the  narrative.  This  traditionary  period,  ex- 
tending over  a  millenium,  is  crowded  with  dreams  and 
fancies.  It  is  the  home  of  romance  and  of  marvels ; 
alike  absurd  and  incredible.  The  remark  of  Horace 
concerning  the  many  brave  men  who  lived  before 
Agamemnon,  but  who  are  whelmed  in  endless  night, 
having  found  no  sacred  bard,  is  true  of  every  country 
and  of  every  age.  Hence  it  is  not  surprising  that  early 
events  are  engulphed  in  the  black  and  silent  waters  of 
oblivion. 

Words    arc    fossil   history ;    needing    to    be   diligently 


12     MYTHS,  LEGENDS,  AND  ROMANCES,     [chap.  I. 

scrutinized,  compared  and  classified.  The  materials  for 
the  first  five  centuries  of  the  Christian  era,  properly 
styled  the  British  Period,  exist  chiefly  in  transient  allu- 
sions in  Classical  and  Byzantine  writers ;  in  coins  and 
monumental  structures ;  in  later  records  of  oral  tradi- 
tions, largely  untrustworthy ;  in  the  writings  of  Giidas 
and  Nennius,  who  flourished  in  the  end  of  the  eighth  and 
the  beginning  of  the  ninth  centuries  ;  and  in  mediaeval 
Lives  of  the  early  Saints,  which,  however,  are  mainly 
apocryphal.  In  a  literary  sense,  it  is  Barmecide's  feast. 
For  the  later  Saxon  period,  history  becomes  more  reli- 
able, though  still  partial  and  defective,  judging  from  the 
few  works  that  survive,  like  Baida,  Asser,  and  the  Saxon 
Chronicle.  There  are  many  contemporary  memoirs  of 
eminent  ecclesiastics  and  scholars,  containing  valuable 
scattered  facts  and  incidents  of  a  general  character.  A 
much  larger  number  of  formal  and  accurate  records 
remain  from  Anglo-Norman  times.  After  the  three 
works  already  mentioned — Bc^da,  Asser,  and  the  Saxon 
Chronicle  —  the  most  important,  though  not  equally 
reliable,  are  those  of  William  of  Malmesbury,  Henry  of 
Huntingdon,  Ordericus  Vitalis,  Simeon  of  Durham, 
Benedict  of  Peterborough,  Roger  of  Hovedcn,  Walter  of 
Coventry,  Florence  of  Worcester,  Roger  of  ^Vendover, 
Ralph  de  Diceto,  Dean  of  St.  Paul's,  William  of  New- 
bury, Giraldus  Cambrensis,  and  Matthew  Paris.  The 
last-named  died  about  1259.  He  and  William  of  ivtalmes- 
bury,  in  particular,  deserve  special  mention  ;  not  only 
for  their  industry  and  impartiality,  but  for  their  judg- 
ment, and  as  being  the  earliest  English  writers  to  present 
what  may  be  regarded,  in  a  modified  sense,  as  the  begin- 
nings of  a  philosophy  of  history.  The  others  are  valuable 
in  their  degree.  A  few  are  mere  transcribers  and  adap- 
ters, or  they  superadded  to  what  already  existed  par- 
ticular statements  respecting  persons  and  incidents,  that 
serve  to  throw  light  upon  some  obscure  events.  Specific 
reference  will  have  to  be  made  to  a  few  of  the  more 
distinguished  of  these  Chroniclers. 

Of  the  monkish  armalists  generally,  Milton  says  in  his 
fragment  of  English  history  : — "  Left  only  to  obscure 
and  blockish  Chronicles,  whom  Malmesbury  and  Hunt- 
ingdon, ambitious  to  adorn  the  history,  make  no  scruple 


MONKISH  CHRONICLES.  13 

ofttimes,  I  doubt,  to  interline  with  conjectures  and 
surmises  of  their  own  ;  them  rather  than  imitate,  I  shall 
choose  to  represent  the  truth  naked,  though  as  lean  as 
a  plain  journal.  Yet  William  of  Malmesbury  must  be 
acknowledged,  both  for  style  and  judgment,  to  be  by  far 
the  best  writer  of  them  all."  In  its  early  forms,  the 
monkish  Chronicle  was  little  more  than  a  barren  record 
of  names,  events,  and  dates.  Sometimes,  the  writer 
restricted  himself  to  the  glorification  of  a  saint  or  a 
martyr,  or  to  a  record  of  the  particular  religious  fra- 
ternity to  which  he  belonged,  or  to  an  account  of  the 
lives  of  its  abbots,  or  to  extolling  the  munificence  of 
founders  and  benefactors.  Many  of  the  statements  bear 
their  own  refutation,  owing  to  their  palpable  absurdity. 
Later  compilers  inserted,  from  various  sources,  floating 
traditions  of  past  events,  like  the  Jewish  '  Cabbala ' ; 
besides  adding  memorials  of  those  which  had  occurred 
since  the  death  of  ihe  original  writers.  Great  difficulty 
exists  in  determining  the  authority  of  each,  because  of 
the  freedom  with  which  lengthy  passages  are  incor- 
porated from  earlier  authors ;  not  infrequently  with 
hypothetical  additions  or  modifications.  The  value  and 
authority  of  some  of  the  Chronicles  are  seriously  im- 
paired by  the  disingenuous  practice  of  omitting  or  toning 
down  entries  which  seemed  to  later  copyists  to  exhibit 
the  character  of  favourite  ecclesiastics  in  a  dubious  light, 
or  to  cast  discredit  on  the  Church  of  which  they  were 
zealous  members.  Sir  Thomas  Duffus  Hardy  has  laid 
all  subsequent  writers  under  a  debt  of  obligation  by  his 
colossal  and  exhaustive  '  Descriptive  Catalogue  of  Mate- 
rials relating  to  the  History  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,' 
from  the  earliest  times  to  a.d.  1327.  It  embraces  all 
known  sources  of  information  ;  historical,  biographical, 
and  hagiographical ;  written  or  printed  ;  and  it  remains 
as  an  enduring  monument  to  the  industry,  patience,  and 
judgment  of  the  compiler.  Nearly  twenty-seven  hundred 
separate  works  or  editions  are  described. 

What  is  called  pre -historic  archaeology  has  not  yet 
attained  to  the  dignity  of  a  science.  Its  professors  and 
votaries,  in  the  ordinary  treatment  of  their  favourite 
theme,    display  a   remarkable   absence   of  the   inductive 


14    MYTHS,  LEGENDS,  AND  /ROMANCES,     [chap.  i. 

faculty.  Much  has  been  written  ;  but  the  statements 
are  mainly  conjectural  and  uncertain.  As  in  the  early 
days  of  geology,  supposed  facts  are  made  to  square  with 
pre-conceived  theories.  There  will,  doubtless,  in  the 
process  of  time,  be  new  discoveries,  more  careful 
analyses,  adequate  comparisons,  and  successful  attempts 
to  evolve  general  laws.  But  the  existing  state  of  know- 
ledge is  too  partial  and  vague  to  sanction  the  arbitrary 
division  which  has  been  made  into  periods,  somewhat 
corresponding  to  those  of  ancient  mythology,  and  roughly 
defined  as  the  Stone  Age,  the  Bronze  Age,  and  the  Iron 
Age.  Most  of  the  arguments  founded  upon  this  nomen- 
clature are  purely  hypothetical,  and  it  is  always  unsafe, 
in  matters  of  history,  to  indulge  in  sweeping  generaliza- 
tion, apart  from  a  wide  collection  of  facts.  It  is  certain, 
judging  from  what  is  known  to  have  been  the  case  in  the 
eighth  century,  and  even  much  later,  that  large  portions 
of  the  country  consisted  of  dense  forests  and  of  impassable 
swamps.  Vast  tracts  of  cultivated  land  and  rich  pasture 
in  modern  Lincolnshire  and  Cambridgeshire  were  meres 
and  lagoons,  and  in  the  Midland  Counties  formed  the 
greenwood.  Wild  animals  roamed  over  the  land ;  inclu- 
ding species  now  extinct. 

The  etymology  of  the  word  "Britain"  has  been  keenly 
disputed.  All  the  definitions  are  more  or  less  speculative. 
That  there  were  people  living  here  long  before  the  period 
of  which  any  certain  information  exists,  is  proved  by  the 
existence  of  various  remains.  All  the  mounds  or  barrows 
are  not  of  British  origin,  as  was  formerly  supposed. 
Some  of  them  are,  undoubtedly  ;  but  others  are,  as 
indisputably,  Saxon.  A  few  have  been  carefully  exa- 
mined, and  in  them  have  been  found  massive  stones  to 
form  a  chamber.  In  other  places,  diligent  excavation 
has  disinterred  numerous  flint  and  stone  implements, 
like  those  continually  being  brought  to  light  nearly  all 
over  the  world.  Bronze  weapons  and  tools  have  also 
been  found.  Among  them  are  axe-heads  and  chisels,  of 
various  forms ;  saws,  punches,  gouges,  spear-heads,  and 
sword-blades.  They  were  cast  in  moulds  ;  specimens  of 
which  have  been  discovered.  Some  of  these  relics  were 
Roman.  Their  shape  and  make  resemble  those  in  Gaul 
and  throughout  Western  and  Nordiern  Europe,  where,  as 


BRITISH  REMAINS.  15 

in  this  country,  they  are  commonly  found  on  known  Roman 
sites.  It  has  been  the  custom  to  consider  all  articles  of 
rude  make,  which  evidently  were  not  Roman,  as  belong- 
ing to  a  prior  age.  More  careful  researches,  and  a  com- 
parison of  many  specimens,  show  that,  like  the  mounds 
or  barrows,  much  of  what  used  to  be  called  British  is 
really  Saxon.  In  like  manner,  some  of  the  alleged 
British  camps  or  towns  are  more  likely  to  have  been 
enclosures  of  a  later  period.  It  is  unsafe  to  dogmatize  on 
matters  of  archaeology,  even  in  the  nineteenth  century, 
which  has  witnessed  the  fabrication  of  so  much  ancient 
literature,  of  so  many  paintings  by  the  Old  Masters,  of  so 
much  antique  furniture,  and  of  innumerable  stone  and 
flint  implements  alleged  to  have  been  found  in  the 
remains  of  what  is  called  the  Drift  Period.  Souvenirs 
said  to  have  been  exhumed  on  the  Field  of  Waterloo, 
and  grotesque  curiosities  professedly  brought  from  Japan, 
often  have  a  common  origin  in  Birmingham. 

Parts  of  the  country  were  known  to  the  Greeks. 
Herodotus,  the  Father  of  History,  who  died  B.C.  408, 
describes  in  a  vague  way  the  Cassiterides,  or  Tin-islands, 
in  the  remotest  bounds  of  Europe.  By  these,  he  is  con- 
jectured to  have  meant  Cornwall  and  the  Scilly  Isles.  In 
a  work  ascribed  to  Aristotle,  who  died  B.C.  322,  mention 
is  made  of  Albion  and  lerne.  Polybius,  one  hundred 
and  fifty  years  before  the  Christian  era,  speaks  of  the 
method  in  which  tin  was  prepared  in  the  Britannic  Isles. 
References  are  found  also  in  such  classical  writers  as 
Cicero,  Lucretius,  Catullus,  Diodorns  Siculus,  Strabo, 
Virgil,  Propertius,  Horace,  Ovid,  Valerius  Maximus, 
Seneca,  Lucan,  Josephus,  Pliny,  Tacitus,  Quinctilian, 
Juvenal,  Martial,  Suetonius,  Plutarch,  Ptolemy,  and 
many  later  authors  after  the  second  century.  The  ancient 
Phoenicians  planted  colonies  from  their  early  seat  in  Pales- 
line  along  the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean.  They  had  long 
traded  to  Britain  for  tin,  but  kept  their  knowledge  a 
profound  secret.  Mixed  with  copper,  tin  became  the 
well-known  "  bronze "  of  that  age.  "  Brass,"  in  the 
English  Bible,  was  really  bronze ;  as  in  i  Kings  vii. 
14-45  '■>  where  Hiram,  King  of  Tyre,  is  described  as  assist- 
ing Solomon  in  preparing  materials  for  the  Temple  at 
Jerusalem.     After  the  decay  of  the  Phoenicians,  a  similar 


i6    MYTHS,  LEGENDS,  AND  ROMANCES,     [chap.  i. 

trade  was  carried  on  with  Britain  by  the  Carthaginians, 
the  great  rivals  of  the  Romans. 

Probably  the  first  inhabitants  were  a  branch  of  the 
great  Aryan  family  known  as  the  Celtce,  Portions  of 
this  tribe  entered  Europe  at  various  times,  and  settled  in 
different  places ;  among  others,  in  the  countries  now 
known  as  France  and  Spain.  It  was  easy  to  pass  over 
the  narrow  channel  dividing  Britain  from  the  mainland. 
The  Celtae  are  spoken  of  by  Aristotle  and  by  Strabo  as  a 
bold  and  hardy  race,  fearing  no  dangers  or  foes,  and 
savage  in  warfare.  They  were  followed  in  their  migra- 
tions at  intervals  by  other  tribes,  who  settled  on  different 
parts  of  the  Southern  and  Eastern  coasts.  Chief  among 
these  were  the  Belgce,  from  the  jS'orth  of  Europe ;  a 
part  of  that  great  Teutonic  or  Gothic  Tribe  which  swept 
down  at  various  times,  hke  mighty  waves,  and,  at  length, 
overcame  the  once-powerful  but  enervated  Romans. 
These  new-comers  attacked  and  drove  back  the  older 
settlers  to  the  North  and  to  the  West ;  so  that  the 
country  was  occupied  by  two  distinct  races,  divided 
into  separate  tribes  or  clans,  of  which  many  names 
have  been  preserved  by  Roman  writers.  In  that  portion 
of  the  island  extending  from  what  is  now  known  as  Kent, 
to  the  extreme  West,  or  Cornwall,  there  were  scattered 
tribes  called  the  Cantii,  the  Regni,  the  Bibroci,  and  the 
Segontiaci.  The  large  district  lying  between  the  Thames, 
the  Severn,  the  Mersey,  and  the  Humber — still  using 
modern  names — was  scantily  peopled  by  the  Trinobantes, 
the  Iceni,  the  Cassii,  and  other  tribes.  In  what  is  now 
called  Wales  were  the  Silures,  the  Ordovices,  and  the 
Demetse.  In  the  Northern  portion,  from  modern  Lin- 
colnshire to  Cumberland,  were  the  Volantii;  the  Brigantes, 
the  Cornavii,  and  some  smaller  septs ;  while  beyond  them 
were  twenty-one  other  groups  whose  names  are  recorded. 
Probably  there  were  more,  who  escaped  mention.  Thus 
the  country  had  been  peopled  here  and  there,  at  different 
periods,  from  several  shoots  of  these  great  stocks,  who 
had  mostly  settled  along  or  near  the  sea-coast,  or  beside 
the  rivers  ;  but  whose  habits  were  nomadic  and  predatory. 

The  condition  of  the  aborigines  before  their  partial 
conquest  by  the  Romans  was  like  that  of  the  septs  or 
clans  in  Ireland  and  in  the  Highlands  of  Scotland  at  a 


JULIUS  CAESAR.  17 

much  later  time.  Each  chief  held  sole  rule  over  his 
own  tribe.  There  were  diversities  of  race  and  of 
language.  No  proof  exists  for  a  statement  sometimes 
made,  that  these  various  tribes,  or  the  Saxons  subse- 
quently, were  in  the  habit  of  uniting  under  one  leader 
or  overlord.  So  far  was  this  from  being  the  case,  that 
they  were  perpetually  at  war  with  one  another.  Their 
disunion  was  helpful  to  the  Romans  when  they  attempted. 
a  subjugation,  and  to  the  Saxons  in  their  later  incursions. 
It  is  needful  to  remember  that  only  scattered  portions  of 
the  country  had  been  peopled  by  at  least  two  distinct 
races,  and  in  successive  inroads  at  distant  periods. 
The  Southern  inhabitants  differed  from  those  of  the 
North,  in  dress,  usages,  speech,  and  the  degree  of 
civihzation.  The  portion  now  known  as  Kent  was  more 
settled  and  cultivated ;  as  its  tribes  maintained  a  con- 
nection with  Gaul.  Most  of  what  is  recorded  of  them 
comes  from  the  writings  of  Julius  Caesar,  Tacitus, 
Plutarch,  Strabo,  and  Diodorus  Siculus,  but  chiefly 
from  Caesar.  Even  his  information  is  largely  given  at 
second-hand ;  and  therefore  is  of  little  value.  Some  of 
the  statements  in  his  '  Commentaries,'  regarding  the 
civil  war  with  Pompey,  are  chargeable  with  exaggera- 
tion, if  not  with  misrepresentation.  Those  concerning 
Britain  were,  of  necessity,  to  a  large  extent  conjectural, 
or  based  on  mere  rumour,  and  often  made  to  exalt  his 
own  prowess,  by  magnifying  difficulties  and  by  idealizing 
enemies.  He  appears  to  have  remained  in  the  country 
only  for  a  month  on  his  first  visit,  and  for  less  than  six 
months  on  the  second.  Nor  is  he  known  to  have  gone 
beyond  what  is  now  called  Kent.  He  had  not  made 
himself  ma'^ter  of  a  foot  of  the  soil,  nor  did  he  leave 
any  soldiers  in  possession,  or  erect  a  fort  or  other 
memorial  of  his  visit.  It  was  not  in  any  sense  a  con- 
quest. Tacitus  declares  that  Caesar  did  not  subdue  the 
island  ;  but  only  showed  it  to  the  Romans.  He  suddenly 
landed  with  a  force  of  two  legions ;  made  a  few  skir- 
mishes ;  saw  but  little  of  the  country  or  the  people ;  and 
then  as  suddenly  departed,  to  pursue  at  Rome  the  im- 
perial designs  which  his  temporary  absence  was  intended 
both  to  disguise  and  promote. 

The  Britons  are  described  as  tall,   strong,  brave,  and 
4 


1 8     MYTHS,  LEGENDS,  AND  ROMANCES,     [chap.  i. 

hardy.  The  word  "  barbarians,"  as  apphed  to  them  and 
to  others,  simply  meant  people  who  were  not  civilized 
and  polished  after  the  Roman  ideal ;  just  as  the  word  is 
used  in  China  at  the  present  day  with  reference  to  all 
foreigners.  It  did  not  necessarily  denote  rough  and  course 
savages.  Such  could  not  have  been  the  state  of  a  people 
who  resisted  the  greatest  military  power  of  the  world  so 
^long,  so  skilfully,  and  with  such  success,  and  who  reared 
the  colossal  stone  monuments  that  still  exist.  They 
must  have  known  something  of  mechanical  laws.  They 
were  not  all  the  mere  woad-painted  savages  described  in 
school-histories  once  popular  and  oracular.  They  had 
numerous  articles  for  adornment ;  as  finger-rings,  metal 
collars,  bracelets,  beads,  and  earrings,  in  gold,  silver  and 
bronze.  Many  of  these  have  been  dug  up  in  Wiltshire, 
Derbyshire,  Leicestershire,  Dorsetshire,  Kent,  and  other 
pferts,  and  are  now  preserved  in  the  British  Museum 
and  in  local  repositories.  The  people  were  clever  in 
basket-work,  and  knew  the  value  of  tin  and  lead ;  for 
which  some  districts  of  the  country  were  famed.  Possibly, 
they  coined  the  money  of  which  specimens  exist.  Some 
numismatists,  however,  are  of  opinion  that  they  were 
produced  in  Gaul ;  being,  for  the  most  part,  copies  of 
Greek  and  Roman  coins.  From  that  country  also  it  is 
supposed  that  bronze  was  obtained.  No  evidence  exists 
that  the  Britons  knew  how  to  make  it ;  although  they 
possessed  the  natural  ingredients.  Their  dwellings  were 
constructed  of  timber  or  of  reeds,  and  were  placed  on 
a  rising  ground  or  in  a  forest,  surrounded  by  a  stockade 
and  a  ditch.  Some  of  the  groups  were  large  enough  to 
deserve  the  name  of  towns,  especially  in  the  Southern 
parts  of  the  island.  Roads  were  made,  in  some  fashion ; 
for  Caesar  speaks  of  the  natives  being  skilled  in  horse- 
manship and  in  the  driving  of  chariots  ;  but  such  roads 
were  far  inferior  to  those  afterwards  constructed  by  the 
Romans,  and  were  probably  not  much  better  than  tracks. 
Their  dress  was  slight ;  mostly  formed  of  skins.  In  the 
case  of  the  more  barbarous  tribes,  the  body  was  freely 
stained,  or  tattooed  with  the  juice  of  woad — Isatis  tinc- 
toria — which  imparted  a  blue  tinge.  They  were  swift 
runners,  and  clever  in  crossing  rivers  and  marshes. 
They    were    armed    with     bronze    swords,    spears,    and 


CROMLECHS.  19 

javelins,  and  carried  small  round  shields  for  defence. 
The  youth  were  trained  to  arms,  and  found  ample  exer- 
cise in  the  feuds  that  perpetually  arose  among  neigh- 
bouring septs. 

The  mass  of  the  Celtic  tribes  in  Gaul,  and  probably  those 
in  Britain,  were  serfs.  The  chiefs  were  subordinate  to 
the  Druids.  Caesar  states  that  the  Belgse  had  no  Druids, 
and  that  the  whole  province  of  Gaul  was  divided  into 
two  parties ;  some  of  the  tribes  supporting  the  Druids, 
and  others  opposing  them.  All  classical  writers  agree 
that  the  Druidical  system  was  the  same  in  Gaul  and  in 
Britain.  Csesar's  famous  description  is  known  to  every 
school-boy.  With  the  Druids  are  commonly  associated 
the  massive  stones  found  near  Salisbury  and  elsewhere 
in  Wiltshire,  Oxfordshire,  Cornwall,  North  Wales,  and 
other  districts.  Henry  of  Huntingdon,  who  flourished 
early  in  the  twelfth  century,  gives  a  list  of  British 
wonders  then  existing ;  among  which  Stonehenge  fills 
the  second  place.  The  name  is  a  corruption  of  a  Saxon 
word,  meaning  "the  hanging  stones."  Various  con- 
jectures •  have  been  made  as  to  the  original  purpose  of 
these  Titanic  structures ;  miniature  rivals  of  the  pyramids 
of  Cheops.  They  are  supposed  to  have  been  temples, 
or  courts  of  justice,  or  places  of  tribal  assembly,  or 
altars  for  sacrifice,  or  burial  places.  It  is  now  generally 
admitted  that  the  majority  of  such  circles  supported  or 
enclosed  sepulchral  mounds.  Some  of  them  surround  a 
"  cromlech " ;  which  is  thought  to  be  a  Celtic  word, 
denoting  a  stone  table,  used  as  a  tomb.  The  cromlech 
is  usually  a  rough  chamber,  enclosed  on  three  sides  by 
upright  stone  slabs,  and  covered  with  a  fourth  slab ;  all 
of  them  unhevvn.  Such  is  the  remarkable  one  on  the 
hill  between  Rochester  and  Maidstone,  known  as  Kit's 
Cotty  House,  the  top  stone  of  which  is  estimated  to 
weigh  ten  tons  ;  or  the  much  larger  one  at  Chum-Quoit, 
in  Cornwall.  Sometimes,  as  at  Plas  Newydd,  in  Angle- 
sea,  cromlechs  are  found  side  by  side.  Similar  erections 
exist  in  Ireland,  in  the  Channel  Islands,  and  in 
Brittany. 

The  Druids  were  of  three  orders  or  classes  : — Baids, 
who  were  poets  and  musicians ;  Vates,  who  were  prie^-ts 
and  physiologists ;  and  the  Druids  proper,  who  were  the 


20  THE  ROMANS  IN  BRITAIN.        [chap.  ii. 

most  clever  and  learned,  and  practised  divination,  magic, 
and  astrology.  The  youths  whom  they  taught  had  to 
keep  silence,  and  to  learn  by  heart  the  instructions  given. 
Writing  was  forbidden  ;  partly  to  strengthen  the  memory, 
but  chiefly  to  prevent  their  esoteric  doctrines  being  too 
widely  known.  The  chief  of  these  were  the  unity  and 
eternity  of  God,  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  With 
the  latter  was  connected  in  a  rudimentary  form  the 
Eastern  doctrine  of  metempsychosis.  It  was  believed 
that  the  soul  passed  at  death  into  some  other  body,  even 
into  that  of  a  beast  or  reptile,  as  a  punishment  for  sin, 
or  as  a  step  in  a  process  of  purification.  The  Druids 
were  also  lawgivers  and  judges,  and  were  greatly  feared 
for  their  occult  learning  and  mysterious  endowments. 
The  ancient  faith  could  not  be  exterminated  for  several 
centuries.  Even  now,  after  two  thousand  years,  relics  of 
the  system  remain ;  for  the  Scottish  usages  of  Hallow- 
mass,  so  vividly  depicted  by  Burns,  the  English  bonfires 
of  May-day  and  of  Midsummer-eve,  and  the  procession 
of  the  boar's  head  at  Christmas,  with  other  strange 
notions,  prejudices,  and  customs  of  country  places,  had, 
in  all  probability,  a  Druidical  origin. 


CHAPTER  H. 

THE    ROMANS    IN    BRITAIN. 
B.C.    55— AD.   410. 

After  the  transient  visits  of  Julius  Cffisar  in  Augu.st,  55 
n.c.  and  in  the  following  Spring,  the  Britons  were  left  to 
themselves.  Some  of  their  chiefs  appear  to  have  visited 
Jvome.  Augustus  Caesar  several  times  spoke  of  annexing 
the  distant  island,  but  he  concluded  that  the  empire 
ought  not  to  be  further  extended,  lest  its  power  should  be 
weakened.  Numerous  coins  have  been  found,  especially  of 
Cunobelinus;  the  'Cymbeline'  of  Shakspere.  The  country 
continued  divided  and  unsettled,  and  in  a.d.  43,  a  body 
of  fifty  thousand  troops  was  sent  under  Aulus  Plautius, 
by  command  of  the  Emperor  Claudius,  who  himself 
subsequently  arrived  for  sixteen  days.     On  his  return  to 


B.C.  55-A.D.  410.]  BOADICEA.  21 

Rome,  a  triumph  was  decreed,  a  medal  was  struck,  and  he 
took  the  surname  of  Britannicus  ;  as  if  he  had  achieved 
a  mighty  victory,  instead  of  making  a  mihtary  parade  of 
a  fortnight.  Aulus  Plautius  continued  to  assail  the 
tribes  on  the  North  side  of  the  Thames,  where  he  had 
already  won  several  battles.  Vespasian,  afterwards 
Emperor,  undertook  to  subdue  the  tribes  on  the  South. 
He  is  said  to  have  fought  thirty  battles — some  of  which 
must  have  been  mere  skirmishes  —  and  to  have  taken 
twenty  fortified  places  ;  but  no  abiding  advantages  were 
secured.  When  he  left,  and  when  Aulus  Plautius  was 
recalled,  after  five  years,  the  Britons  at  once  resumed 
possession  of  the  districts  that  had  been  so  dearly  won. 
The  name  of  Caractacus,  one  of  the  principal  chiefs, 
occurs  in  connection  with  these  events.  He  led  his 
people,  the  Silures,  wisely  and  bravely,  but  was  captured 
through  the  treachery  of  his  step-mother,  Cartismandua, 
Queen  of  the  Brigantes,  and  was  sent  to  Rome,  where 
Claudius  received  him  with  kindness  and  restored  him 
to  liberty.  Nothing  is  known  of  his  after  career,  or 
whether  he  returned  to  Britain.  During  sixteen  years 
the  Romans  were  engaged  in  fitful  conflicts  with  different 
tribes.  Tacitus  says  that  there  was  incessant  fighting. 
Yet  the  Britons  were  not  subdued.  Caius  Suetonius 
Paullinus,  a  skilful  and  renowned  general,  was  sent  by 
the  Emperor  Nero,  and  proved  more  successful ;  though 
not  until  after  many  hard  contests.  He  marched  to 
Mona,  or  Anglesea,  and  inflicted  a  fatal  blow  upon 
the  power  of  the  Druids  —  who  had  retreated  to  that 
island.  An  outbreak  occurred  among  the  Iceni,  in 
what  is  now  called  Suffolk.  This  was  caused  by  the 
harsh  conduct  of  the  Roman  governor  of  that  district, 
Tacitus  admits  that  the  distant  provinces  of  the  empire 
were  often  arbitrarily  treated  by  the  Procurators,  who 
were  anxious  to  secure  great  wealth  for  themselves,  and 
he  expressly  states  that  much  cruelty  and  oppression  pre- 
vailed in  Britain. 

The  seizure  of  the  whole  property  and  land  of  the 
chief  of  the  Iceni,  and  the  treatment  of  his  widow, 
Boadicea,  an  Amazonian  queen,  led  her  to  call  upon  the 
people  to  rise  against  the  Romans.  Their  colony  of 
Camulodunum  (Colchester)  was  assailed  and  taken  while 


22  THE  ROMANS  IN  BRITAIN.        [chap.  ii. 

Suetonius  was  in  Anglesea,  and  much  loss  was  inflicted. 
Londinium  (London)  and  Verulamium  (St.  Alban's) 
were  also  captured,  arid  such  Romans  as  were  found, 
with  the  German  auxiliary  troops  and  such  of  the 
natives  as  had  submitted  to  the  invaders,  were  destroyed  ; 
to  the  number,  as  is  said,  of  seventy  thousand.  Little 
reliance,  however,  can  be  placed  on  such  specific  state- 
ments. They  are  mainly  conjectural,  and  are  nearly 
always  exaggerated.  Suetonius  hastened  back  ;  collected 
his  troops ;  and  prepared  for  battle.  The  British  assem- 
bled in  great  force,  flushed  with  their  recent  success.  A 
long  and  furious  encounter  took  place.  Hundreds  were 
cut  down  or  speared  by  the  Romans,  but  hundreds  more 
threw  themselves  upon  the  solid  ranks.  All  was  in  vain. 
They  were  finally  routed  with  great  slaughter ;  Tacitus 
again  stating,  with  a  precision  that  is  highly  doubtful, 
that  eighty  thousand  men,  women,  and  children  were 
slain.  It  is  certain  that  the  carnage  was  terrible. 
Boadicea  would  not  endure  the  shame  of  capture,  and 
of  being  displayed  in  a  Roman  triumph  ;  but  poisoned 
herself.  Her  country  was  overrun  and  plundered  by 
fresh  troops  from  Gaul ;  yet  the  Iceni  were  not  subdued, 
though  broken  and  scattered.  Suetonius  was  recalled, 
as  he  was  thought  to  have  been  too  severe.  After  this, 
for  fourteen  years,  down  to  a.d.  78,  the  Southern  and 
Eastern  parts  of  the  island  were  ruled  by  five  Propraetors 
in  succession,  who  did  not  try  to  extend  their  power. 
Mutinies  in  the  army,  and  contests  among  rivals  for  the 
imperial  purple,  weakened  the  Roman  force,  and  gave  no 
time  for  further  conquests.  Thus,  after  having  been 
here  continuously  for  thirty-five  years,  and  one  hundred 
and  thirty-three  after  their  first  visit,  the  Romans  had 
not  really  subdued  one  -  half  of  Britain.  The  native 
tribes  displayed  a  spirit  which  even  Roman  power  could 
not  vanquish  ;  though  some  of  them  had  been  widely 
scattered  and  almost  exterminated  because  they  would 
not  yield. 

After  Vespasian  had  become  Emperor,  he  bethought 
him  of  the  distant  island  where  some  of  his  early 
triumphs  had  been  won.  In  a.d.  78  he  sent  Caius  Julius 
Agricola  to  take  the  chief  command.  This  general  had 
already  served  under  Suetonius,  and  knew  the  character 


B.C.  SS-'^D.  4IO.]  AGRICOLA.  23 

and  habits  of  the  people.  His  first  act  was  to  march  a 
body  of  troops  against  the  Ordovices  ;  whom  he  subdued. 
He  then  recaptured  Mona.  Having  thus  shown  his  power 
and  skill,  he  sought  to  win  over  other  tribes  by  wise  and 
gentle  treatment.  A  court  was  opened  for  the  redress  of 
their  grievances.  He  re-settled  on  just  grounds  the 
tribute  to  be  paid.  Robbery  on  the  part  of  the  lower 
officers  was  stopped.  He  made  rules  for  the  public 
granaries,  which  had  before  been  used  for  private  gain. 
By  these  means  he  won  confidence  and  goodwill.  He 
took  the  sons  of  eminent  chiefs  into  his  service,  and  gave 
them  posts  of  honour.  In  the  process  of  time  it  was 
found,  as  Agricola  probably  intended,  that  what  military 
force  could  not  do,  mit^ht  be  accomplished  by  kindness 
or  policy.  His  son  -  in  -  law,  Tacitus,  writes,  —  "  The 
Britons  willingly  supply  our  armies  with  recruits,  pay 
taxes  without  a  murmur,  and  perform  all  the  services  of 
government  with  alacrity,  provided  they  have  no  reason 
to  complain  of  oppression.  When  injured,  their  resent- 
ment is  quick,  sudden,  and  impatient ;  they  are  conquered, 
but  not  spirit-broken ;  they  may  be  reduced  to  obedience, 
not  to  slavery." 

Agricola  was  thus  employed  for  eight  years.  It  was 
his  practice  to  devote  the  summer  months  to  warlike 
operations  in  the  Northern  part  of  tha  island,  where  the 
Caledonian  tribes  still  held  out.  He  went  as  far  as  the 
Grampian  Hills,  and  fought  a  great  battle,  a.d.  84.  He 
built  a  chain  of  forts  from  the  Clyde  to  the  Firth  of  Forth  ; 
although  it  is  doubtful  whether  he  constructed  a  wall,  in 
the  literal  sense.  He  began  four  great  military  roads  ; 
sailed  all  round  the  island  ;  and  by  his  successful  rule 
won  great  renown,  which  exposed  him  to  the  dislike  of 
the  Em[)eror  Domitian  ;  and  he  was  recalled.  The 
quietness  that  prevailed  in  Britain  for  more  than  twenty 
years  is  a  proof  of  the  wisdom  and  justness  of  Agricola's 
administration.  The  country  is  seldom  named  during 
that  period  by  contemporary  historians  ;  showing  that  it 
gave  little  or  no  trouble.  The  prefects  who  followed 
were  chiefly  engaged  in  finishing  the  roads  and  other 
public  works  begun  by  him.  Britain,  like  other  provinces 
of  the  Empire  that  were  under  military  occupation,  was 
treated  as  part  of  a  regular  system  for  the  collection  of 


24  THE  ROMANS  IN  BRITAIN.        [chap.  ii. 

taxes.  Natives  were  excluded  from  posts  of  trust  and 
authority,  and  were  forbidden  to  carry  arms.  About  this 
time,  Ireland  was  first  visited  and  partly  subdued.  The 
poet  Juvenal,  in  one  of  his  Satires — supposed  to  have 
been  written  in  a.d.  96 — speaks  of  it  as  one  of  the  most 
recent  conquests  of  Rome.  He  mentions  British  oystcis 
as  favourites  at  the  tables  of  the  rich,  and  the  whales  in 
the  British  seas  as  of  great  size.  He  adds  that  the  learn- 
ing and  eloquence  of  Greece  and  Rome  had  been  copied 
in  Britain.  Martial,  another  contemporary  writer,  also 
refers  to  the  rapid  progress  of  civilization  in  this  country  ; 
but  such  statements  must  be  accepted  with  reservations. 

Fresh  inroads  of  the  Caledonian  tribes,  and  some 
recent  signs  of  disaffection  in  the  South  of  Britain,  led 
to  a  visit  by  the  Emperor  Hadrian,  a.d.  120.  No  account 
of  it  exists  ;  but  various  medals  struck  at  the  time  refer 
to  his  having  driven  back  the  Northern  invasion.  He  is 
commonly  said  to  have  made  a  rampart  across  the 
country,  from  Bowness  on  Solway  Firth  to  the  Tyne, 
at  a  place  called  Segedunum ;  the  modern  Wallsend. 
This  rampart  or  wall  has  given  rise  to  much  antiquarian 
disputation.  It  is  said  by  some  to  be  the  work  of 
Severus  ;  and  by  others  to  have  been  built  at  a  much 
later  period.  It  was  a  massive  structure  of  masonry, 
from  six  to  ten  feet  thick,  and  about  eighteen  feet  in 
height.  On  the  North  it  was  protected  by  a  fosse  or 
ditch,  thirty-six  feet  wide  and  fifteen  feet  deep  ;  and  on 
the  South  by  a  smaller  ditch.  At  a  distance  of  about 
every  three  miles  was  a  military  station,  consisting  of  a 
citadel,  strongly  defended,  enclosing  streets  and  buildings. 
Between  the  stations  were  smaller  fortresses,  a  mile 
apart ;  and  at  shorter  intervals  were  towers  for  watchers. 
Along  the  course  of  the  Roman  Wall  are  found  tablets 
inscribed  with  the  names  of  the  different  bodies  of  troops 
who  built  certain  portions ;  chiefly  belonging  to  the 
Second,  the  Sixth,  and  the  Twentieth  Legions.  As  was 
the  Roman  custom,  these  were  stationed  for  years  in  the 
same  province.  A  bridge  was  constructed  across  the 
Tyne,  called  Pons  /Elii,  on  the  site  of  the  present  town 
of  Newcastle. 

Eighteen  years  later,  LoUius  Urbicus,  the  then 
governor,    went    farther    North,    and    rebuilt    Agricola's 


B.C.  55-AD.  4IO.]  SEVERUS.  25 

lines  or  castles  of  defence,  the  remains  of  which  are 
now  known  as  Graham's  Dyke ;  or,  as  it  is  sometimes 
erroneously  styled,  the  Wall  of  Antoninus.  The  North 
of  England  and  the  Lowlands  of  Scotland,  as  it  was 
termed  at  a  much  later  period — for,  until  the  eleventh 
century,  the  name  Scotia  was  applied  exclusively  to 
Ireland,  giving  rise  to  much  confusion  and  dispute  among 
writers — were  thus  thickly  covered  with  military  forts. 
Most  of  the  soldiers,  like  the  others  stationed  in  the 
South,  were  auxiliaries,  drawn  from  different  nations.  In 
the  'Notitia  Imperii,'  compiled  in  the  time  of  Theo- 
dosius,  at  the  close  of  the  Roman  domination,  a  long  list 
is  given  of  troops  who  occupied  military  stations  in  this 
island;  including  Asiatic  Samaritans,  Moors,  Greeks, 
Dalmatians,  and  tribes  from  Spain,  Thrace,  and  Asia 
Minor.  Such  was  the  practice  of  the  Romans ;  and  it  is 
certain,  in  like  manner,  that  trained  British  troops  were 
sent  to  fight  in  and  to  colonize  distant  places,  such  as 
Egypt,  Armenia,  lUyricum,  Gaul,  and  Italy.  In  the  end, 
this  policy  recoiled  upon  Rome,  by  destroying  her  own 
nationality. 

During  the  prolonged  struggles  for  the  Imperial 
dignity,  the  troops  stationed  in  Britain,  like  those  else- 
where, took  sides  with  the  various  claimants.  Clodius 
Albinus,  one  of  the  prefects  of  Britain,  a  man  of  great 
talent,  disputed  the  possession  of  the  purple  with 
Severus,  but  was  slain  in  a  great  battle  near  Lyons,  a.d. 
197.  When  Severus  had  secured  the  supreme  power,  he 
divided  the  government  of  the  island  between  two 
prefects,  so  as  to  lessen  their  influence.  Virius  Lupus, 
who  ruled  the  Northern  part,  was  much  troubled  by  the 
fierce  tribes  who  dwelt  on  both  sides  of  the  wall.  Dion 
Cassius  (b.  a.d.  155),  the  historian  of  the  period,  describes 
them,  but  his  somewhat  circumstantial  details  must  have 
been  obtained  from  others.  Aid  was  sought  of  the 
Emperor  against  these  tribes.  Severus  came  himself, 
A.D.  208,  with  a  large  army.  He  penetrated  farther  into 
the  natural  fastnesses  than  any  Roman  had  done ;  over- 
coming every  obstacle,  and  compelling  the  tribes  of  the 
Mceatce  and  the  Caledonii  to  sue  for  peace.  His  campaign 
is  said  to  have  cost  him  fifty  thousand  men ;  chiefly  from 
fatigue   and   disease.     Death   overtook   him   three   years 


26  THE  ROMANS  IN  BRITAIN.       [chap.  il. 

later,  at  Eburacum  (York) ;  then  the  second  city  in  the 
island.  After  this,  for  more  than  seventy  years,  history 
is  silent  concerning  Britain,  until,  in  a.d.  286,  Carausius, 
the  admiral  of  a  Roman  fleet  which  had  been  sent  to  put 
down  the  pirate  tribes  of  Franks  and  Saxons,  revolted 
from  the  Emperors  Diocletian  and  Maximian,  and  pro 
claimed  himself  Emperor  of  Gaul  and  Britain.  For 
seven  years  he  defied  the  power  of  Rome,  and  made  the 
savage  tribes  of  the  North  keep  within  their  own  limits. 
Many  coins  exist,  bearing  his  effigy  and  name.  He  was 
assassinated  at  York,  in  294,  by  his  minister,  Allectus, 
who  retained  power  for  three  years ;  when  Constantius 
Chlorus  landed  in  Kent  and  defeated  him.  Allectus  was 
slain  in  the  battle,  and  the  Imperial  rule  was  restored. 
Constantius  soon  after  shared  with  Galerius  the  supreme 
authority  at  Rome,  and  died  in  Britain  in  306 ;  being 
succeeded  by  his  son,  Constantine  the  Great. 

During  the  next  fifty  years  there  were  frequent  attacks 
upon  the  Romans  by  the  Picts  and  Scots  of  the  North, 
and  by  Saxon  sea-rovers.  At  length,  in  367,  the  Emperor 
Valentinian,  alarmed  for  the  safety  of  the  island,  sent 
Theodosius  to  repel  the  invaders.  He  did  this  with  great 
slaughter ;  drove  them  out  of  the  country ;  and  again 
established  the  Roman  authority.  But  the  power  of 
Rome  was  fast  declining.  The  days  of  the  Empire  were 
numbered.  Fresh  intrigues  took  place  within,  and  fresh 
attacks  were  made  from  without.  Province  after  pro- 
vince was  lost.  Rome  itself  was  threatened  by  Alaric 
and  his  Goths.  On  the  death  of  Theodosius,  the  Empire 
was  again  divided ;  and  in  410  the  remaining  legions 
were  withdrawn  from  Britain  in  order  to  defend  the 
capital  against  the  barbarous  hordes  from  the  North  of 
Europe,  who  swept  down  in  successive  waves  upon  the 
fertile  and  wealthy  plains  of  Italy.  Four  hundred  and 
sixty-five  years  after  the  first  landing  of  Julius  Caesar  on 
the  shores  of  Britain,  and  three  hundred  and  sixty-seven 
years  after  the  actual  invasion  in  the  time  of  Claudius, 
the  Romans  finally  abandoned  the  country.  It  was  no 
longer  in  the  state  in  which  they  had  found  it.  For 
upwards  of  three  centuries  it  had  been  more  or  less  the 
seat  of  Roman  civilization  and  luxury.  The  troops  were 
engaged,    during   the    intervals   of  fighting,    in    building 


B.C.  55-A.D.  410.]  ROADS.  27 

large  villas  and  towns,  and  in  constructing  bridges  and 
other  works.  The  face  of  the  country  underwent  great 
changes.  There  must  have  been  abiding  effects  in  the 
districts  around  the  numerous  Roman  settlements. 
Military  roads  of  great  length  were  planned  so  skilfuUv 
and  made  so  thoroughly  that  portions  of  them  are  used 
to  this  day.  Carlyle  says  that  the  roadmaking  and  the 
agriculture  of  the  Romans  are  "  their  greatest  work 
written  on  this  planet." 

The  method  of  construction  is  explained  by  Vitruvius. 
Like  all  the  public  works  of  the  Romans,  the  roads  dis- 
play solidity  and  finish  ;  showing  that  labour  for  its  own 
sake  was  a  matter  of  discipline  and  of  practice.  The 
breadth  varied  from  eight  to  twenty-four  feet  in  the 
North  ;  but  was  much  wider  in  the  South,  on  ac'count  of 
the  greater  traffic.  Seven  of  these  great  roads  led  to  the 
principal  Rftman  towns  in  the  island.  They  were  con- 
nected with  one  another  by  a  network  of  cross-roads  that 
traversed  the  country  in  every  direction.  The  main 
roads  generally  followed  a  direct  Hne  over  hills,  valleys, 
and  rivers,  and  through  forests  and  marshes.  Milestones 
were  regularly  placed  along  them.  One  of  these,  pre- 
served in  the  Museum  at  Leicester,  was  dug  up  in  1774, 
two  miles  to  the  North  of  that  town.  The  Saxons  after- 
wards adopted  the  roads  and  called  them  "  streets."  The 
one  leading  from  the  port  of  Richborough,  through 
London  to  Chester,  was  called  by  them  Wsetlinga-strat ; 
meaning  "  the  street  or  road  of  the  sons  of  Waetla " ; 
thus  connecting  it  with  one  of  their  own  legends.  The 
name  is  still  borne  by  a  small  portion  near  the  Mansion 
House  in  the  City  of  London.  It  was  intersected  in 
Warwickshire  by  the  Fosseway,  which  ran  from  Totnes 
to  the  North-East.  The  road  from  Pevensey  through 
London,  Lincoln,  York,  and  on  to  the  South-East  of 
Scotland,  was  afterwards  called  Eormen-stroet ;  or  the 
street  of  Eormen,  one  of  the  Saxon  gods.  This  became 
corrupted  into  Ermine-street.  The  great  road  which 
crossed  the  Island  from  Norfolk  to  Cornwall  was  named 
Icknield-stra^t ;  and  the  one  from  the  Tyne  to  the 
Severn  was  Ryknield-stro^t.  The  origin  of  these  names 
is  doubtful.  .    . 

York  (Eburacum)  was  the   capital   of   Roman  Bntam, 


28  ■  THE  ROMANS  IN  BRITAIN.       [chap.  ii. 

and  because  of  its  importance,  was  sometimes  called 
altera  Roma.  Constantine  was  declared  Emperor  within 
its  walls.  It  became  the  seat  of  the  Northumbrian 
Kings,  and  an  archiepiscopal  See.  Roman  London  was 
built  on  rising  ground  on  both  sides  of  a  small  stream, 
subsequently  known  as  Walbrook,  which  ran  into  the 
Thames  not  far  from  the  present  Southwark  Bridge. 
Numerous  towns  sprang  up  around  the  camps  where  the 
legionary  troops  were  stationed,  and  a  motley  crowd  of 
traders  and  camp-followers  assembled.  These  were 
Colonies,  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  word;  and  although 
a  certain  British  element  must  have  been  added,  they 
remained,  for  the  most  part,  distinct.  Too  much  stress 
must  not  be  laid  upon  such  occasional  references,  or  to 
those  rekiting  to  citizenship  among  subjugated  peoples. 
At  that  time  Rome  had  become  a  vast  system  of  centra- 
lization. Local  authority  was  restricted  and  trammelled. 
Citizenship  meant  only  the  obligation  to  pay  taxes ;  not 
the  right  to  make  laws  or  to  hold  ofifice.  Taxes  were 
levied  with  merciless  rigour  by  those  who  farmed  them ; 
as  is  the  case  in  Turkey  now.  The  Roman  rule  was  far 
from  being  mild  and  easy.  Among  the  causes  that  led 
to  its  final  overthrow  were  the  enormous  tribute  exacted, 
the  rapacity  of  the  collectors,  and  the  oppressions 
exercised  in  distant  provinces  by  local  administrators, 
who  were  under  no  effectual  control,  and  ruled  their 
helpless  dependents  with  a  rod  of  iron. 

Upwards  of  one  hundred  and  thirty  towns  in  Britain 
are  mentioned  in  the  Itinerary  of  the  Roman  Empire 
which  goes  under  the  name  of  Antoninus  Augustus,  and 
is  supposed  to  have  been  drawn  up  in  320.  Many  others 
have  been  traced  in  different  parts ;  so  that  the  country 
must  have  been  studded  with  settlements.  Among  the 
principal,  besides  those  already  mentioned,  were  the 
following : — Uriconium  (Wroxeter),  Lindum  (Lincoln), 
Danum  (Doncaster),  Calleva  (Silchester),  Corinium  (Ciren- 
cester), Glevum  (Gloucester),  Ratse  (Leceister),  Lugu- 
valhum  (Carlisle),  Camboricum  (Cambridge),  Deva 
(Chester),  Salince  (Droitwich,  from  its  salt-springs), 
IDurnovaria  (Dorchester*,  Regnum  (Chichester),  Dubrse 
(Dover),  Durovernum  (Canterbury),  Venta  (Winchester), 
Sorbrodunum     (Old    Sarum),    and     Isca    Dumnoniorum 


B.C.  55-A.D.  4IO.]  BUILDINGS. 


29 


(Exeter)  Many  of  the  towns  were  enclosed  by  walls. 
These  were  often  of  vast  height,  sometimes,  as  in  existing 
remains  at  Rutupia^  (Richborough),  as  much  as  thirty 
feet ;  also  of  great  thickness,  as  at  Lymne,  where  they 
are  fourteen  feet ;  while  others  are  not  more  than  nine. 
The  stones  were  hewn  and  fitted  with  much  care,  and 
such  of  the  walls  as  remain,  after  the  exposure  of  fifteen 
centuries,  still  look  fresh  and  firm,  where  they  have  not 
been  injured  by  the  hands  of  man. 

Every  large  town  had  a  forum  or  court-house,  public 
baths,  and  temples.  At  Uriconium,  the  baths  cover  a 
square  of  two  hundred  feet.  Verulamium  had  a  theatre 
of  large  extent.  Almost  every  Roman  station  had  its 
amphitheatre,  where  the  passion  for  public  shows  and 
for  the  combats  of  gladiators  might  be  gratified.  Traces 
exist  here  and  there  of  a  stadium,  or  race-course.  Such 
remains  are  interesting,  because,  probably,  British  work- 
men assisted  in  the  original  building.  It  is  almost  certain 
that  wealthy  native  chiefs  copied  the  Roman  dwellings 
and  domestic  habits,  as  it  is  known  that  they  copied  dress 
and  language.  In  addition  to  the  towns,  there  were  nume- 
rous country  mansions,  or  villas ;  some  of  them  of  great 
extent.  This  was  more  especially  the  case  in  the  Mid- 
land and  Southern  districts,  where  the  ruins  of  many 
detached  houses  have  been  found,  covering  an  extensive 
area;  as  at  Woodchester  and  Cirencester,  in  Gloucester- 
shire ;  at  Kingdon  and  Somerton,  in  Somersetshire  ;  at 
Hartlip,  in  Kent,  and  at  Stonesfield  and  North  Leigh,  in 
Oxfordshire.  Such  villas  belonged  to  Romans  of  rank 
and  wealth,  who  sought  retirement  in  the  country, 
surrounded  by  a  numerous  household  and  by  a  crowd  of 
slaves. 

The  ma'^onry  of  all  these  Roman  remains  is  uniformly 
good.  Work  was  performed  honestly ;  with  materials 
calculated  to  endure.  The  age  of  shoddy,  of  veneer, 
and  of  jerry-building  had  not  then  dawned.  The  tiles 
and  flat  bricks  vary  from  half  an  inch  to  two  inches  in 
thickness.  Special  care  was  taken  with  the  mortar,  so  as 
to  render  it  hard  nnd  durable.  It  is  more  easy  to  break 
the  stones  of  a  Roman  wall  than  the  cement  that  binds 
them  together.  Floors  of  houses  were  placed,  not  on 
:he  ground,  but  on  a  number  of  short  hollow  columns  of 


30  THE  ROMANS  IN  BRITAIN.       [chap.  il. 

square  tiles,  to  form  the  hypocaust,  from  a  Creek  word, 
signiiying  literally,  "  heat  underneath  "—for  purposes  of 
warming.  In  this  way,  heat  was  diffused  through  the 
buildings  by  hollow  bricks  or  tiles.  Care  was  taken  to 
provide  good  drainage  ;  and  in  some  places,  as  in  Lin- 
coln, Roman  sewers,  constructed  of  excellent  masonry, 
are  still  in  good  preservation.  In  every  Roman  villa, 
baths  of  various  kinds  were  deemed  essential  to  cleanli- 
ness and  health.  Tesselated  floors  were  formed  of  small 
cubes  of  stone,  terra  cotta,  and  glass,  of  different  colours, 
arranged  so  as  to  form  a  design.  A  number  of  these 
hive  been  found  in  London  and  elsewhere,  when  exca- 
vating for  foundations  or  for  sewers,  buried  far  beneath 
the  present  surface ;  their  brightness  undimmed  by  their 
long  interment.  The  inner  walls  of  houses  were  covered 
with  a  thick  coating  of  plaster  or  stucco,  which  har- 
dened into  a  firm  mass.  It  was  made  quite  smooth,  and 
then  received  a  thin  surface  of  fine  cement.  On  this, 
while  moist,  designs  were  painted,  and  the  whole  became 
so  solid  and  durable  that  the  broken  fragments  among 
such  ruins  look  still  fresh  and  clear. 

Roman  towns  and  villages  were  not  used  by  the 
Saxons.  They  did  not  want  them,  and  would  have 
been  at  a  loss  to  know  what  to  do  with  them.  Where 
it  suited  their  purpose  to  save  the  old  work,  or  to  remove 
portions  of  the  materials  for  other  structures,  they  did  so. 
Otherwise,  they  left  the  old  sites  to  decay.  Desolation 
marched  with  giant  strides,  and  neglect  caused  the  build- 
ings to  fall  into  ruin.  Earth  and  vegetation  gradually 
covered  them,  and  in  the  lapse  of  years  they  disappeared. 
Some  of  them  present  traces  of  having  been  plundered 
and  injured  ages  ago ;  and  others  are  charred  by  fire. 
Occasionally,  the  materials  were  used  long  afterwards  for 
the  construction  of  other  buildings  ;  as  in  the  case  of  the 
great  Abbey  of  St.  Alban's,  now  the  Cathedral  of  a 
diocese.  The  main  part  of  this  edifice  was  reared  in  the 
eleventh  century ;  Roman  tiles  being  chiefly  employed 
and  covered  with  plaster.  William  of  Malmesbury, 
writing  in  the  twelfth  century,  refers  to  the  stately 
Roman  ruins  in  his  day.  The  description  of  Caerleon, 
in  Wales,  by  Giraldus  Cambrensis,  also  in  the  twelfth 
century,   long  after  much  damage   and    waste   had   been 


B.C.  55-A.D.  4IO.]  POTTERY  31 

inflicted,  is  applicable  to  many  other  towns  in  Britain  : — 
"  It  was  elegantly  built  by  the  Romans,  with  brick  walls. 
Many  vestiges  of  its  ancient  splendour  yet  remain,  and 
stately  palaces,  which,  with  gilt  tiles,  displayed  the 
Roman  grandeur.  It  was  first  built  by  the  Roman 
nobility,  and  adorned  with  sumptuous  edifices,  with  a 
lofty  tower,  curious  hot  baths,  temples  now  in  ruins,  and 
theatres  encompassed  with  stately  walls,  in  part  yet 
standing.  The  walls  are  three  miles  in  circumference, 
and  wdthin  these,  as  well  as  without,  subterranean  build- 
ings are  frequently  met  with,  as  aqueducts,  vaults,  and 
hypocausts."  John  Leland,  who  wrote  in  the  time  of 
Henry  VIII.,  and  was  specially  charged  to  make  inqui- 
ries into  the  antiquities  of  the  country,  describes  a 
number  of  Roman  sculptures  which  had  been  used  long 
before  in  building  the  town  wall  of  Bath.  This  is  one 
instance  out  of  many  which  he  gives  as  to  the  ruthless 
treatment  of  ancient  monuments. 

The  chief  products  of  Roman  industry  and  skill  have 
long  since  perished ;  but  enough  exist  to  show  that 
manufactures  were  largely  carried  on.  Thousands  of 
articles  in  porcelain  and  earthenware,  in  bronze  and 
leather,  with  fragments  of  glass  and  beads,  are  pre<;erved 
in  most  public  museums  and  in  many  private  collections. 
On  the  banks  of  the  Medway,  the  Upchurch  marshes 
were  the  seat  of  an  extensive  pottery.  Specimens  of 
the  ware  made  —  known  by  the  potters'  marks  —  are 
found  among  Roman  remains,  not  only  all  over  Eng- 
land but  also  in  France.  Other  potteries  existed  at 
Dymchurch  in  Kent,  at  Castor  in  Northamptonshire, 
and  elsewhere.  Potters'  kilns  have  been  brought  to 
light.  The  vessels  found  vary  in  size,  form,  and  finish. 
Some  are  highly  decorated.  Such  articles  were  common 
at  a  time  when  earthenware  vases,  bowls,  lamps,  urns, 
and  dishes  were  used  for  purposes  now  fulfilled  by  chests, 
boxes,  baskets,  bags,  and  caskets.  Nor  were  the  tricks 
of  trade  lacking.  Spurious  coins,  and  the  stamps  for  quack 
medicines,  chiefly  for  diseases  of  the  eyes — then  widely 
prevalent — are  still  disinterred ;  the  former  in  such  quan- 
tities as  to  warrant  the  suspicion  that  it  was  a  common 
device  with  the  agents  of  the  imperial  treasury.  The 
medicine  stamps  were  impressed  upon  the  viscous  prepa- 


32  THE  ROMANS  IN  BRITAJN.        [chap.  ll. 

rations  before  they  hardened.  Locks  exist,  with  in- 
genious contrivances  similar  to  those  fabricated  and 
patented  in  recent  times.  Round  pigs  of  copper  have  been 
found  in  Wales  and  in  Cornwall ;  whence  the  Romans 
derived  their  chief  supply.  Traces  of  lead  mines  are 
numerous  in  the  same  districts  ;  and  pigs  of  lead,  bear- 
ing the  official  stamps  of  the  Roman  miners,  and  the 
name  and  date  of  the  reigning  emperor,  are  of  frequent 
occurrence. 

Roach  Smith — whose  name  can  never  be  mentioned 
without  profound  respect  and  admiration  for  his  diligent 
and  careful  researches — found  in  an  ancient  rubbish-pit, 
while  deep  excavations  were  being  made  for  the  Royal 
Exchange  in  London,  the  refuse  of  the  shops  of  Roman 
shoemakers,  weavers,  and  other  handicraftsmen  ;  but  of 
most  artisan  trades  there  are  but  few  remains.  The 
same  zealous  antiquary  brought  to  light  the  sign  of  a 
Roman  goldsmith,  at  Old  Malton,  in  Yorkshire,  in  the 
form  of  a  large  stone,  bearing  an  inscription,  and  evi- 
dently part  of  the  front  wall  of  a  house.  Coal  was 
used,  when  beds  of  it  lay  near  the  surface;  and  cinders 
have  been  found  on  the  fire-places.  Traces  of  iron- 
works are  met  with  in  Northumberland  and  Yorkshire, 
but  the  principal  were  in  the  wooded  district  of  the 
Siliires,  now  called  the  Forest  of  Dean ;  and  also  in  the 
great  forest  of  Anderida,  forming  the  modern  Wealds  of 
Sussex  and  Kent.  In  various  places  in  the  former 
county,  as  at  Maresfield,  Sedlescombe,  and  Westfield, 
masses  of  ancient  iron  scoricC,  or  slag,  have  been  found  ; 
one  of  which  was  twenty  feet  deep.  That  these  are 
Roman  remains  is  proved  by  the  number  of  coins  and 
of  fragments  of  pottery  mixed  with  them.  Charcoal  was 
used  for  smelting  the  iron-ore ;  but  a  great  portion  of 
the  metal  remains  in  the  slag,  owing  to  the  rudimentary 
and  imperfect  processes  then  used.  With  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  woods  for  fuel,  the  iron  manufacture  subse- 
quently disappeared  from  that  part  of  the  South  of 
England ;  though  large  quantities  of  ore  still  exist. 

During  the  Roman  occupation,  both  interment  and 
cremation  were  practised  with  the  dead.  When  the 
Emperor  Severus  died  in  Britain,  his  body  was  burned, 
and  the  ashes  were  placed  with   spices   in  an  urn  and 


B.C.  55-A.D.  410.]  TOMBS.  33 

carried  to  Rome.  Many  such  urns,  of  a  hard,  dark- 
coloured  ware,  have  been  dug  up ;  sometimes  enclosed 
in  leaden  cases,  or  in  a  kind  of  vault  made  of  tiles. 
When  the  body  was  not  burned  it  was  buried  in  a  chest 
or  coffin  of  wood,  clay,  stone,  or  lead.  Liquid  lime  was 
poured  in,  and  this,  when  carefully  removed,  still  shows 
traces  of  the  form  of  the  body  and  even  of  the  texture 
and  colour  of  the  dress.  Roman  sepulchral  monuments 
consisted  usually  of  a  slab  of  stone  ;  often  containing  an 
effigy  of  the  deceased,  and  bearing  some  such  inscription 
as  the  following,  on  a  soldier,  who  died  at  Cirencester : — 
"  Rufus  Sita,  a  horseman  of  the  Sixth  Cohort  of  Thracians, 
aged  forty,  served  twenty-two  years.  His  heirs,  in 
accordance  with  his  will,  have  caused  this  monument  to 
be  erected.  He  is  laid  here."  This  is  one  of  the  many 
mortuary  inscriptions  that  confirm  the  statements  in  the 
'  Notitia '  as  to  the  foreign  soldiers,  from  almost  e^'ery 
clime,  who  were  found  among  the  Roman  legions.  Very 
seldom  is  there  any  direct  reference  to  death.  Know- 
ledge of  the  future  was  so  slight  and  vague,  that  the 
Romans  seem  to  have  shrunk  from  naming  it.  A 
general  behef  prevailed  that  articles  burnt  or  buried  with 
the  deceased  would  add  to  nis  comfort  in  the  world  of 
shades.  The  dead  were  therefore  clothed  in  full  dress, 
wearing  their  jewellery  and  other  ornaments,  and 
furnished  with  wine,  provisions,  cooking  utensils,  and 
articles  for  the  toilet.  This  explains  why  so  many  of 
these  things  are  found  in  Roman  tombs.  They  contain 
glass  vessels  of  exquisite  shape,  and  sometimes  of 
iridiscent  hues  ;  coins,  beads,  buttons,  and  the  relics  of 
articles  of  attire;  with  an  endless  variety  of  objects  in 
daily  use.  Fibulae,  or  brooches  made  of  bronze,  of  silver, 
and  of  gold,  are  found  in  large  numbers  ;  with  bracelets, 
necklets,  armlets,  earrings,  and  finger-rings.  Bone  or 
bronze  pins  were  used  by  ladies  to  fasten  their  hair. 
Leather  sandals,  plain  or  richly  ornamented,  hand- 
mirrors  of  polished  metal,  and  combs  of  boxwood  or  bone; 
tweezers,  scissors,  bone  needles,  clasp  knives,  spoons; 
locks  and  keys ;  hand-bells,  lamps,  and  images  of  the 
household  gods ;  styles,  for  writing  upon  wax  tablets ; 
steelyards  and  weights,  buckles,  coins,  and  miscel- 
laneous articles  have  been  brought  to  light  of  late  years 
5 


34  THE  ROMANS  IN  BRITAIN.       [chap.  il. 

from  Roman  houses  and  tombs  in  various  parts  of 
Britain. 

The  Romans  seldom  interfered  with  the  religion  of 
conquered  nations.  Their  severity  towards  the  Druids 
sprung  solely  from  political  reasons ;  just  as  the  early 
Christians  were  persecuted  because  of  the  social  tendencies 
of  their  doctrines,  which  struck  at  the  root  of  the  system 
of  Imperial  Rome.  Wherever  the  Romans  extended 
their  conquests  and  established  colonies,  they  carried 
with  them  their  own  forms  of  religion.  In  Britain, 
temples  were  erected  to  Jupiter,  Apollo,  Diana,  Venus, 
Minerva,  and  other  deities.  Among  the  various  Roman 
altars  and  votive  slabs  that  have  been  found,  one, 
dedicated  to  Jupiter,  was  discovered  at  Tynemouth,  and 
is  now  in  the  museum  of  the  Society  of  Antiquaries  of 
London.  Another,  found  at  Ribchester,  is  preserved  in 
St.  John's  College,  Cambridge.  The  Roman  mythology 
and  worship  were  largely  introduced,  and  the  population 
must  have  been  recruited  mainly,  so  far  as  there  was  a 
material  increase,  from  the  Pagan  tribes  of  Germany  and 
of  Northern  Europe. 

The  social  condition  of  Ionian  Britain  is  interesting  as 
marking  one  stage  of  the  national  childhood.  In  Thomas 
Wright's  work,  '  The  Celt,  the  Roman,  and  the  Saxon,' 
will  be  found  the  best  collection  for  popular  use  of  such 
details  as  can  be  regarded  as  ascertained  and  settled ; 
although  some  of  his  inferences  are  fairly  open  to 
criticism.  Roman  customs  must  have  been  long  pre- 
served ;  and  manufactures  and  useful  arts  carried  on  by 
them  w^ere  imitated  by  the  Britons.  The  language,  so 
far  as  it  can  be  traced,  was  scarcely  modified.  There 
is  no  warrant  for  supposing  that  the  use  of  Latin  extended 
beyond  the  ofificial  and  ruling  class.  Many  of  the  mer- 
cenaries settled  here  at  various  times.  A  large  and 
important  trade  was  carried  on  with  Europe,  in  salt, 
corn,  fish,  and  metals.  Agriculture  was  extensively 
practised.  Under  Julian,  in  358,  eight  hundred  vessels 
were  employed  in  the  corn  trade  between  the  English 
coasts  and  Roman  colonies  on  the  Rhine.  The  beech- 
tree,  the  fir,  the  chestnut,  the  cherry,  and  more  than 
half  our  forest  and  garden  trees,  are  of  Roman  origin  ; 
with  the  vine,  the  fig,  peas,  cabbages,  radishes,  parsley, 


B.C.  55-A.D.  410.]     SOCIAL  EFFECTS.  35 

nnd  other  vegetable  produce.  The  labour  of  tillage  was, 
doubtless,  left  to  the  natives  and  to  the  crowds  of  foieign 
settlers ;  for  the  Romans  mostly  cultivated  the  manu- 
facturing and  ornamental  arts,  when  not  absorbed  in 
the  pursuit  of  foreign  war  and  conquest.  Without 
insisting  too  strongly  upon  the  abiding  effects  of  Romrn 
colonisation,  it  is  not  improbable,  in  the  absence  of  direcc 
and  conclusive  testimony,  that  a  character  was  impressed 
and  an  influence  exercised  upon  later  generations,  in 
matters  of  police  and  markets,  in  the  tenure  of  land,  in 
the  distinctions  of  classes,  and  in  the  supremacy  of  law. 


CHAPTER  III. 

NATIONAL    ACCRETION    AND    FORMATION. 
A.D.    410-901. 

After  the  final  departure  of  the  Imperial  troops  a 
number  of  petty  chiefs  maintained  incessant  rivalry  and 
contests.  Events  described  by  the  older  Chroniclers  as 
national  were  tribal  or  local ;  for  it  is  clear  that  such 
distinctions  had  not  ceased.  Native  traditions  became 
corrupted  in  the  strife  of  succeeding  times.  The  people 
were  disunited  ;  and  the  country  was  exposed  to  attack 
from  a  stronger  and  more  warlike  race.  Yet  enough 
is  known  to  show  that  a  spirit  of  sturdy  indepen- 
dence survived.  Another  century  had  to  elapse  ere 
the  Britons,  with  such  Continental  settlers  as  remained 
after  the  retirement  of  the  Romans,  were  subdued  by 
the  Saxons.  Even  then,  it  became  an  amalgamation 
of  the  two  peoples.  The  common  assertion,  that  the 
whole  of  the  Celtic  population — the  number  of  which  is 
not  known,  but  is  probably  much  exaggerated  —  was 
diiven  into  the  Welsh  mountain  fastnesses,  where  it 
was  not  exterminated,  has  no  warrant  in  history.  Nor 
is  there  proof  that  the  Welsh  of  the  present  day  are 
descended  from  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  that  country. 
They  are  probably  derived  from  a  later  Celtic  colony. 
The   absorption   must  be   sought   among   the   Irish   and 


36  ACCRETION  AND  FORMATION,  [chap.  hi. 

Scots ;  for  both  forms  of  the  GaeHc  language  may  lie 
regarded  as  representing  the  speech  of  the  Early  Britons. 
It  is  absurd  to  suppose  that  they  were  all  slaughtered  or 
banished  by  a  few  skiff-loads  of  Saxon  invaders,  who 
settled  chiefly  along  the  Eastern  and  South-Eastern 
coasts.  They  did  not  at  once  break  up  and  sweep  away 
existing  conditions.  Gradually  they  made  conquests ; 
but  they  were  absorbed  by  the  inhabitants,  as  was  the 
case  with  later  arrivals  ;  adding  new  features  of  character 
and  some  fresh  elements  of  rule  and  custom. 

The  old  Roman  towns  seem  to  have  retained  their 
independence  for  a  time.  The  tribes  in  the  Northern 
part  of  the  island  were  much  troubled  for  nearly  forty 
years  by  the  attacks  of  fierce  bands  from  the  other  side 
of  the  Roman  Wall  and  from  Ireland.  These  are  loosely 
spoken  of  as  the  Picts  and  Scots.  By  the  former,  the 
Chroniclers,  doubtless,  meant  the  Caledonii  and  the 
Maeatie ;  for  these  names  do  not  again  occur.  The 
Scots,  as  they  were  then  called,  whose  colony  in  the 
Western  Highlands  was  afterwards  to  impress  that  name 
upon  North  Britain,  came  from  Ireland.  They  sprung 
from  roving  bands  of  Celtic  adventurers  who  had  peopled 
that  country  at  different  times.  The  account  already 
given  of  the  early  inhabitants  of  Britain  applies,  in  the 
main,  to  the  scattered  tribes  of  Ireland  and  of  what  is 
now  termed  Scotland.  Even  so  late  as  the  eleventh 
century  the  Picts  and  Scots  were  not  blended  into  one 
nation. 

The  Roman  power  was  crumbling  to  decay.  Europe 
was  one  vast  plunder-field,  over  which  bands  of  Northern 
freebooters  and  pirates  roamed  :  "  the  multitude  which 
the  populous  North  poured  from  her  frozen  loins." 
Some  of  them  had  made  descents  upon  this  island  and 
had  settled  on  its  Eastern  side  during  the  Roman 
occupation.  Others  came  subsequently,  in  increasing 
numbers.  Dismissing  the  Gargantuan  tales  and  fables 
invented  at  a  later  time,  and  magnified  by  many-tongued 
Rumour,  one  thing  seems  to  be  highly  probable,  if  not 
absolutely  certain.  A  British  chieftain  named  Vortigern, 
in  the  South-Eastern  district,  wishful  to  protect  himself 
against  incursions,  and  to  secure  supremacy  over  his 
neighbours,  called  to  his  aid,  about  the  middle  of  the 


A.D.  410-901.]  THE  SAXONS.  27 

fifth  century,  some  of  the  roving  predatory  hordes  that 
infested  the  narrow  seas.  They  came  from  the  Baltic 
and  from  Northern  Germany,  under  the  legendary 
leadership  of  Hengest  and  Horsa.  Gildas,  who  wrote 
about  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century,  calls  them 
"  whelps  from  the  lair  of  the  barbarian  lioness."  Always 
ready  to  fight,  and  eager  for  plunder,  they  readily  con- 
sented, and  then,  loth  to  go  back,  they  received  or 
extorted  from  Vortigern — who  thus  exchanged  King  Log 
for  King  Stork — the  Isle  of  Thanet  as  a  residence  ;  that 
part  of  Kent  being  then  divided  from  the  mainland  by  a 
narrow  arm  of  the  sea.  Their  dominion  was  speedily 
extended  over  a  much  wider  area.  Nowhere  could 
recruits  be  more  easily  drawn  from  Northern  Europe, 
and  few  parts  of  Britain  then  offered  richer  booty  to  the 
spoiler.  Other  bands  of  these  sea-rovers  effected  a 
lodgment  elsewhere  along  the  coasts,  or  made  inroads 
up  the  rivers  ;  just  as  the  Danes  did  four  centuries  later. 
The  people  who  had  already  settled  on  the  Eastern 
shores  were  known  as  Angles,  or  English  ;  whence  the 
district  was  called  Anglia.  The  position  of  the  respective 
settlers  was  marked  by  the  terms  Northfolk  and  South- 
folk ;  the  origin  of  the  names  of  the  two  modern 
counties.  They  are  described  by  the  early  writers  as 
Saxons,  and  were  really  branches  of  a  common  stock  ; 
though,  besides  the  Angles,  there  were  Jutes  and 
Frisians.  Each  tribe  was  distinct  and  complete  in 
itself. 

The  origin  of  the  Saxons  has  been  a  subject  of  much 
dispute.  '  They  were  probably  a  part  of  that  second 
great  Northern  wave  of  population  which  spread  over 
Europe  about  600  B.C.,  and  consisted  of  Scythian, 
German,  and  Gothic  tribes.  From  this  great  stock 
sprang  the  Angles,  the  Saxons,  the  Jutes,  the  Lowland 
Scots,  the  Normans,  Danes,  Norwegians,  Swedes,  Dutch, 
Belgians,  Lombards,  Franks,  and  Germans  of  after  times. 
The  people  thus  variously  designated  as  Saxons  were 
rough,  bold,  and  enterprising  ;  partly  agricultural,  partly 
nomadic,  and  wholly  warlike.  Fierce  and  masterful, 
their  rude  energy  did  not  waste  itself  in  words,  but 
found  scope  in  daring  action.  They  acquired  by  long 
practice    in    the   inexorable  school  of  necessity  the  power 


38  ACCRETION  AND  FORMATION,  [chap.  hi. 

to  subdue  Nature  to  their  will ;  as  in  shutting  out  the 
ocean  by  gigantic  dykes ;  thus  anticipating  in  a  rudi- 
mentary form  the  engineering  works  of  the  Dutch  a 
thousand  years  later.  The  vices  of  those  times  were 
commonly  indulged  in  by  them,  on  a  magnified  scale  ; 
including  drunkenness,  gluttony,  greed,  rapine,  cruelty, 
and  a  love  of  war.  Their  supposed  reverence  for  women 
has  been  highly  extolled,  but  much  exagsierated.  Their 
domestic  life,  so  far  as  it  existed  in  roving  tribes,  was 
reputable  for  that  period.  They  possessed,  in  common 
with  the  Teutonic  races,  certain  rough  customs,  scarcely 
worthy  to  be  regarded  as  codes  of  laws ;  a  gradation  in 
rank,  springing  out  of  successful  leadership  and  daring 
adventure ;  a  traditional  literature  of  sagas  and  war- 
songs,  of  a  Bacchanalian,  militant,  predatory  type  ;  and, 
above  all,  a  consuming  passion  for  liberty. 

As  was  the  case  with  most  of  these  tribes,  they  were 
always  ready  to  fight,  and  were  prepared  to  shed  their 
own  blood  as  freely  as  that  of  their  enemies.  Each 
Saxon  warrior  had  his  spear,  sword,  dagger,  and  pon- 
derous battle-axe  ;  while,  for  defence,  his  lefi  arm  bore  a 
target  of  tough  wood,  covered  with  hide  or  leather. 
Instead  of  the  axe,  a  massive  club,  headed  with  iron,  was 
sometimes  used ;  typified  by  the  mighty  hammer  of  their 
god,  Thor.  Wielded  by  strong  arms,  it  must  have  been 
a  deadly  weapon.  Military  chieftainship  was  the  real 
character  of  the  rule  of  their  titular  kings.  The  word  is 
used  in  a  vague  sense  by  subsequent  writers.  The  con- 
nection was  merely  personal.  They  were  the  leaders  of 
such  as  chose  to  follow,  but  in  no  sense  were  they  lords 
of  the  soil,  nor  was  their  rule  obeyed  longer  than  it  could 
be  enforced  by  personal  prowess  and  by  force  of  character. 
Tribal  ties  were  loose  and  frail ;  but  the  blood  bond  was 
sacred.  A  bold  leader  attracted  to  himself  adventurous 
spirits,  eager  for  any  fray  that  would  yield  excitement 
and  plunder.  The  expeditions  were  separate  and  inde- 
pendent ;  occurring  at  uncertain  intervals ;  extending  to 
distant  lands  and  across  unknown  seas ;  spread  over  a 
lengthened  period ;  and  ending  in  victory  or  death. 
What  the  Spartan  mother  said  to  her  son  on  presenting 
him  with  a  shield,  "  Either  this,  or  upon  this,"  was 
applicable  to  them.      During  three  centuries  of  remorsb' 


A  .D.  410-90 1 .]         VAG  UE  KINGDOMS.  39 

less  conflict  with  the  Romans,  these  Northern  tribes  had 
steadily  advanced ;  a  part  of  the  great  Scandinavian 
Exodus  of  that  age,  which  was  to  produce  such  im- 
portant results. 

Neither  Gildas  nor  Bceda  is  a  safe  guide  through  this 
dark  and  mazy  period.  Babel-like  confusion  prevails. 
Amidst  the  idle  chatter  and  expanding  repetitions  of 
later  writers,  much  of  the  real  history  is  irrecoverably 
lost.  Nor  is  it  possible  to  disentangle  the  facts  relating 
to  King  Arthur  from  the  pieposterous  fictions  with 
which  monkish  Chronicles  and  Mediaeval  romances  have 
overlaid  his  history.  So  hopeless  is  the  task,  that  many 
erroneously  regard  him  as  a  myth,  and  his  Court  as 
visionary.  But  he  lived  at  the  time  of  the  Saxon 
inroads,  and  is  supposed  to  have  died  in  542,  at  Glaston- 
bury, from  wounds  received  in  battle.  His  story  is  the 
result  of  slow  accretions  ;  to  which  Walter  Mapes  gave 
final  form  in  the  twelfth  century.  There  were  successive 
weaves  of  invaders.  Fresh  bands  settled  in  different  parts 
of  the  country,  after  hard  fighting.  Their  domain  lay  in 
scattered  districts,  stretching  from  the  English  Channel 
to  the  Firth  of  Forth  along  the  Eastern  coast,  and  as  far 
West  as  the  Severn.  One  of  the  largest  bands  was  led 
by  Ella,  who  landed  in  Sussex  about  the  year  457. 
With  great  difficulty  he  slowly  drove  the  earlier  inhabi- 
tants into  the  dense  forest.  Not  for  eight  years  did  he 
attempt  to  penetrate  it  in  order  to  capture  the  fortified 
place  known  as  Andredes-ceaster  (Pevensey).  The  place 
was  bravely  defended,  but  the  Saxons  took  it,  and,  in 
revenge,  murdered  all  their  captives. 

Ella  founded  what  is  usually  styled,  with  loose  phrase- 
ology, the  kingdom  of  the  South  Saxons ;  embracing, 
apparently,  the  modern  counties  of  Sussex  and  Surrey. 
Another  arrival  of  Saxons  is  recorded  in  495,  under  the 
leadership  of  Cerdic,  who  founded  what  is  also  in- 
adequately designated  the  Kingdom  of  the  West  Saxons. 
This  embraced,  roughly,  what  is  now  known  as  Berks, 
Hants,  Wilts,  Somerset,  Dorset,  Devon,  and  part  of 
Cornwall.  Before  the  end  of  the  sixth  century,  separate 
bands  had  effected  a  landing  at  different  spots  North  of 
the  Thames.  After  prolonged  resistance,  and  many 
battles,    they   established    themselves,    and    their    settle- 


40  ACCRETION  AND  FORMATION,  [chap.  hi. 

ments  came  to  be  known  eventually  as  the  Kingdoms 
of  the  East  Saxons,  of  Bernicia,  of  Deira,  of  East  Anglia, 
and  of  Mercia.  The  first  included  the  present  county 
of  Essex,  with  Middlesex  and  part  of  Herts.  Bernicia 
comprised  the  North-Eastern  side  of  the  island,  from 
the  Tyne  to  the  Forth.  Deira  was  that  portion  from 
the  Tees  to  the  Humber ;  and  Mercia  the  Midland 
counties  from  the  Severn  to  the  Humber.  East  Anglia 
embraced  the  district  now  known  as  Norfolk,  Suffolk, 
and  Cambridge.  For  the  sake  of  clearness,  and  in  order 
to  prevent  tautology,  the  modern  names  of  counties  are 
used,  although  unknown  at  that  tim.e. 

These  settlements,  or  kingdoms  as  they  were  eventually 
termed,  were  not  made  without  perpetual  contests 
among  themselves,  or  without  long  and  brave  resistance 
on  the  part  of  the  Britons  and  of  other  tribes  who  had 
found  a  footing  in  the  country.  By  the  close  of  the 
sixth  century,  the  so-called  kingdom  of  the  South  Saxons 
was  merged  in  that  of  Wessex.  Eadward  of  Deira  also 
united  the  nominal  Kingdom  of  Bernicia  with  his  own, 
in  617,  under  the  title  of  Northumbria.  In  this,  with 
Wessex  and  Mercia,  the  interest  henceforth  centres  ;  for 
into  these  three  powerful  settlements  all  the  others  were 
gradually  absorbed.  In  Northumbria,  fourteen  chiefs  or 
titular  kings  ruled,  in  a  loose  sense,  in  rapid  succession, 
within  a  century.  Six  were  murdered  by  rivals,  five 
were  expelled,  two  became  monks,  and  only  one  died 
a  monarch  ;  if,  indeed,  that  appellation  can  be  used  with 
propriety  at  this  early  and  inchoate  stage.  Thus  the 
way  was  prepared  for  the  absorption  of  Northumbria 
into  Wessex,  in  841.  In  the  meantime  there  were 
frequent  struggles  and  contests  between  Wessex  and 
Mercia  ;  and  for  a  time  it  seemed  likely  that  the  latter 
would  triumph.  At  length,  in  802,  Ecgberht  became 
ruler  of  Wessex.  His  career  was  the  most  renowned  and 
successful  of  any  of  the  Saxon  chiefs  or  kings  before  the 
time  of  Alfred.  Not  that  he  was  the  first  king  over  all 
England,  as  has  been  erroneously  alleged,  but  that 
partly  by  conquest,  and  partly  by  skilful  alliances,  he 
succeeded  in  establishing  in  a  somewhat  vague  fashion 
the  supremacy  of  Wessex. 

The  other  idea  of  a  Heptarchy,  or  a  supposed  federa- 


A.D.  410-901.]  THE  NORTHMEN.  41 

tion  of  seven  distinct  kingdoms  under  one  over-lord, 
styled  a  Bretwalda,  must  also  be  dismissed  as  a  figment 
of  a  later  age.  There  is  not  a  scintilla  of  evidence  in  its 
support.  The  English  monarchy,  properly  so-called,  did 
not  begin  to  exist  for  nearly  a  century  after  the  death  of 
Ecgberht  in  836.  Yet  there  was  a  sort  of  union  of  the 
scattered  bands  whose  ancestors  had  separately  landed  on 
various  parts  of  the  British  coast,  at  periods  ranging  from 
two  hundred  and  fifty  to  three  hundred  and  seventy 
years  before,  and  between  whom  there  had  been  endless 
feuds,  intrigues,  wars,  marriages,  murders,  and  alliances. 
Into  the  details  of  these  quarrels  it  is  needless  to  enter. 
Concerning  them  Milton  contemptuously  says,  in  his 
fragment,  the  '  History  of  Britain,' — "  Such  bickerings  to 
recount,  met  often  in  these  our  writers,  what  more  worth 
is  it  than  to  chronicle  the  wars  of  kites  or  crows,  flocking 
and  fighting  in  the  air  ? "  Saxon  literature  was  almost 
unknown  in  Milton's  day,  and  it  remained  unexplored 
for  a  lengthened  period.  From  this  point,  however,  the 
course  of  English  history  can  be  traced  by  landmarks 
which  Time  has  spared. 

Before  the  power  of  Wessex  was  established  over  its 
rivals,  a  new  and  grave  trouble  had  arisen,  in  the  attacks 
of  the  Danes,  or  Northmen.  Their  first  descent  upon 
Britain  was  in  787,  and  they  continued  to  assail  it  for 
more  than  two  centuries.  The  Chronicles  abound  in 
pitiful  accounts  of  their  cruelties  and  robberies,  and  of 
the  bloody  conflicts  to  which  these  led.  The  loss  of  life 
on  both  sides  must  have  been  immense ;  yet,  as  fast  as 
one  horde  was  repulsed  or  slain,  others  arrived,  with  a 
thirst  for  plunder  that  could  not  be  quenched,  and  in 
numbers  that  seemed  to  be  endless.  They  came  from 
Jutland,  from  Sweden,  from  the  countries  and  islands  of 
the  Baltic,  as  well  as  from  the  district  specially  named 
after  the  later  bands  of  Danes.  Their  first  attacks  were 
similar  to  those  which  the  Saxons  had  made.  They 
swooped  down  in  separate  bands,  landing  where  they 
could,  on  the  sea-shore,  in  the  estuaries,  or  along  the 
rivers  ;  robbing,  slaying,  ravishing,  burning,  and  then 
vanishing  with  their  plunder  and  captives.  Not  only 
Britain,  but  France,  Spain,  and  the  coasts  of  the 
Mediterranean  were  visited  by  these  marauders,  so   that 


42  ACCRETION  AND  FORMA  I'lON.  [chap.  hi. 

by  the  ninth  century  their  name  had  become  a  sound  of 
terror  \  as  was  that  of  Attila,  the  Scourge  of  God,  to  the 
Romans  of  the  later  Empire.  Originally,  the  Northmen 
sprang  from  the  same  stock  as  the  Saxons.  It  is  note- 
worthy that  the  successive  invasions  of  Britain  by 
Saxons,  Danes,  and  Normans,  though  spread  over  seven 
hundred  years,  were  all  made  by  branches  of  the  same 
great  Teutonic  family.  In  the  lapse  of  time,  and  under 
the  stress  of  circumstances,  the  various  offshoots  pre- 
sented marked  differences  in  character,  habits,  and 
religion ;  while  in  physical  appearance  and  in  language 
they  retained  a  resemblance. 

The  Northmen  regarded  the  Saxons  as  recreants  from 
the  faith  of  their  common  ancestors,  and  for  this  reason 
took  special  delight  in  robbing  and  burning  sacred 
buildings.  The  comparative  wealth  of  Britain  excited 
their  cupidity,  as  that  of  Rome  had  attracted  the 
German  tribes,  and  as  that  of  Spain  impelled  the 
adventurers  of  Elizabeth's  times.  "  Truce-breakers " 
and  "  heathens  "  are  the  epithets  continually  applied  by 
the  Chroniclers,  who  regarded  these  sea-rovers  with 
horror  and  detestation.  Priests  were  slain ;  nuns 
violated ;  churches  and  monasteries  burned ;  shrines 
rifled ;  holy  vessels  desecrated ;  rare  manuscripts  and 
choice  carvings  given  to  the  flames.  One  title  borne  by 
them  was  that  of  Vikings,  or  sea-kings.  Their  sudden 
attacks,  their  fierceness,  rapacity,  and  cruelty,  made  them 
the  scourge  and  the  terror  of  all  lands.  They  were  the 
incarnation  of  the  ancient  Moloch.  Storms  did  not 
deter  them.  They  were  strangers  to  fear.  Their 
women  and  children  were  trained  to  respect  no  one 
who  did  not  return  from  these  sallies  laden  with  booty, 
and  bringing  a  number  of  slaves.  Their  history,  as  sung 
by  their  Scalds  or  bards,  consisted  of  wild  tales  of  piracy, 
murder,  pillage,  and  destruction.  He  who  had  robbed 
and  slain  the  most  was  held  in  the  highest  honour.  If 
taken  captive,  the  sea-rover  spurned  life  on  any  terms, 
because  it  would  be  unbearable  with  the  remembrance 
of  defeat.  The  shouts  of  the  victor  and  the  lamentations 
of  the  vanquished  were  the  noblest  paeans.  Death  in 
battle  was  coveted,  and  held  in  renown.  The  slain  hero 
was   believed   to   enter   a    region   of    eternal    strife    and 


A.D.  4IO-90I.]     REPEATED  INVASION.  43 

conquest   in  the  Walhalla  of  Odin,   or  the   Hall  of  the 
Slain. 

These  frequent  inroads  gave  Ecgberht  much  anxiety, 
and  taxed  his  skill  and  resources.  In  832,  the  Danes 
landed  in  the  Isle  of  Sheppey,  at  the  junction  of  the 
Thames  and  the  Medway ;  part  of  the  Kentish  settle- 
ment which,  absorbed  into  Mercia  in  796,  was,  with 
Mercia,  annexed  to  Wessex  about  thirty  years  afterwards. 
Having  pillaged  and  murdered  all  within  reach,  they 
returned  to  their  ships.  The  next  year,  they  came  in 
thirty-five  vessels,  and  made  a  descent  upon  Charmouth, 
in  Dorsetshire,  where  Ecgberht  gave  them  battle.  Both 
sides  lost  many  men,  and  the  invaders  drew  off,  without 
their  usual  plunder.  In  835,  a  large  body  landed  in 
Cornwall,  and  thence  made  an  attack  on  Devonshire. 
They  were  again  met  by  Ecgberht,  and  defeated  in  a 
fierce  battle  at  Hengsdown-hill,  on  the  Cornish  border. 
After  this,  they  avoided  set  encounters  for  a  time.  But 
their  ravages  continued.  The  Southern  and  Eastern 
coasts  were  kept  in  a  state  of  alarm,  not  knowing  when 
these  robbers  might  come  as  with  the  fell  swoop  of  an 
eagle  on  its  prey.  During  the  next  few  years  they 
arrived  in  swarms,  and  with  greater  boldness.  They 
sailed  up  the  Thames  and  the  Medway,  pillaging  London, 
Rochester,  Canterbury,  and  other  towns.  They  were 
routed  at  Southampton,  at  Sandwich,  and  at  Ockley,  in 
Surrey ;  but  gained  the  day  at  Portland,  in  a  second 
battle  at  Charmouth,  and  in  Lincolnshire.  In  851,  they 
took  possession  of  the  Isle  of  Thanet,  and  retained  it  all 
the  Winter.  Two  attempts  to  eject  them  failed,  with 
great  loss  to  the  Saxons.  In  the  following  vSpring, 
another  body  came  in  three  hundred  and  fifty  vessels, 
and  were  driven  back  only  after  enormous  slaughter  and 
damage.  Other  districts  in  Northumbria,  Mercia,  and 
East  Anglia  were  also  invaded  by  these  wandering,  pre- 
datory bands,  who  succeeded  in  effecting  a  lodgment  in 
various  places. 

^thelwulf,  who  had  succeeded  his  father,  Ecgberht,  in 
836,  waged  until  his  death,  in  858,  an  incessant  warfare 
against  his  persistent  foes  ;  with  only  one  brief  interval 
of  a  year,  when   he  made  a  pilgrimage  to   Rome.     Prior 


44  ACCRETION  AND  FORMATION,   [chap,  ill 

to  this,  in  833,  he  had  sent  his  youngest  son,  .Alfred, 
thither,  under  the  care  of  Swithin,  or  Swithun,  Bishop 
of  Winchester,  the  saint  of  the  tradition  about  the 
fifteenth  of  July  and  forty  days  of  rain.  On  this  visit, 
Pope  Leo  IV.  anointed  the  child  as  the  future  King  of 
England.  Between  him  and  the  throne,  however,  stood 
his  three  brothers,  yEthelbald,  ^thelberht,  and  ^thelred, 
who  reigned  two,  six,  and  five  years  respectively.  It  was 
a  stormy  and  a  critical  period,  rendered  so  by  the  re- 
peated attacks  of  the  Danes.  Sometimes  they  were 
resisted,  and  at  other  times  were  bribed  to  depart ;  but 
they  continued  to  arrive  in  fresh  bands,  so  that  the 
country  was  in  danger  of  being  exhausted  by  their 
wanton  damage  and  their  insatiable  greed.  Alfred 
became  King  in  871,  at  the  age  of  twenty-two.  His 
prospects  were  very  gloomy.  The  Danes  still  held  the 
Isle  of  Thanet.  They  had  overrun  the  entire  Eastern 
district  from  the  Tweed  to  the  Humber ;  fraternizing 
with  the  settlers  there  who  were  descended  from  the 
Angles.  A  colony  of  Danes  existed  at  York.  They 
had  desolated  the  Midland  counties.  East  Anglia,  and 
Lincolnshire.  They  possessed  fortified  camps  between 
the  Thames  and  the  Severn.  In  this  way  they  held 
large  portions  of  the  country.  yElfred  had  to  bend  before 
the  fury  of  the  storm,  but  it  is  a  part  of  his  lasting 
renown  that  he  did  not  despair,  even  in  the  darkest  and 
most  trying  hours  of  his  country's  history.  Just  before 
his  accession,  he  fought  a  battle  at  Ashdown,  near 
Reading.  The  Danes  were  worsted.  In  a  comparative 
degree,  from  the  tremendous  odds  arrayed  against  him, 
it  was  a  Thermopylae.  Five  other  contests  took  place  in 
as  many  weeks,  with  varying  results.  He  again  fought  at 
Wilton,  but  was  defeated  ;  so  that  he  agreed  to  a  truce 
for  three  years.  Other  bands  remained  in  the  various 
districts  already  mentioned,  and  he  had  no  means  of 
ejecting  them. 

In  875,  a  fresh  body  of  Northmen  arrived,  under  a 
renowned  leader  named  Guthrum,  with  whom  yElfred, 
from  dire  necessity,  made  a  truce  on  the  usual  terms. 
Guthrum  swore  on  his  own  bracelets  and  on  the  relics 
of  saints  that  he  would  retire  from  Wessex  on  receiving 
a  stipulated    money  payment.     The    former  part    of   ihc 


A.D.  410-901.]  THE  DANELAGH.  45 

oath  was  thought  to  be  specially  binding  on  these  fierce 
Northmen,  and,  according  to  the  simple  piety  of  that  day, 
yElfred  thought  he  would  ensure  the  Divine  protection  if 
the  holy  relics  were  also  used.  But  oaths  and  promises 
could  no  more  bind  such  men  than  a  giant  can  be  bound 
with  thread.  Repeated  conflicts  and  skirmishes  took 
place,  and  by  the  beginning  of  878  zElfred  was  a  fugitive. 
He  escaped,  with  only  a  few  followers,  to  the  Isle  of 
Athelney ;  a  marshy  region  in  the  middle  of  what  is 
now  called  Somersetshire,  then  a  vast  district  of  fens  and 
woods,  the  resort  of  wild  boars,  wolves,  deer,  and  other 
game.  He  remained  in  hiding  for  three  months,  until 
his  adherents  could  assemble.  Then  his  ill-fortune  turned. 
Guthrum  was  utterly  routed  in  battle.  Another  treaty  was 
made,  and  hostages  were  given  by  the  Danes.  Hence- 
forth there  were  practically  two  kings  in  the  island.  That 
large  portion  of  the  country  between  the  Thames,  the  Lea, 
the  Ouse  up  to  Watling-street,  and  the  ocean,  was  ceded 
to  Guthrum,  and  was  known  as  the  Danelagh.  The  dis- 
trict can  still  be  traced  in  the  names  of  places  ending  with 
"  by."  In  the  four  counties  of  Lincolnshire,  Yorkshire, 
Westmoreland,  and  Cumberland,  there  are  now  nearly  a 
thousand  places  bearing  Danish  or  Norwegian  names  ; 
while  there  are  fewer  than  four  hundred  such  names  in 
the  remaining  parts  of  England. 

After  eight  years  of  anxiety,  fighting,  and  wanderings, 
./^i^lfred  found  himself  free  to  enter  upon  a  course  of  wise 
rule  for  his  people.  Guthrum,  and  thirty  of  his  chiefs, 
in  the  gregarious  and  accommodating  fashion  of  that  day, 
consented  to  be  baptized.  He  so  far  kept  his  latest 
compact,  that  the  arrival  of  fresh  bands  of  Northmen, 
with  strong  inducements  to  him  to  break  the  treaty, 
proved  futile.  After  his  death,  the  people  of  the  Dane- 
lagh again  opposed  Alfred ;  but  for  fifteen  years,  with  one 
notable  exception,  he  was  tolerably  free  from  foreign 
attack.  He  devoted  himself  to  the  tasks  which  will  be 
immediately  explained,  after  referring  to  his  crowning 
struggle  with  his  foes.  In  893,  a  large  party  of  them, 
under  a  leader  named  Hcesten,  or  Hasting,  landed  from 
tv/o  hundred  and  fifty  ships  on  Romney  Marsh.  For 
four  years  they  gave  vast  trouble.  They  were  aided  by 
the   men   of  the   Danelagh,    who    not    only   sent    them 


46  ACCRETION  AND  FORMATION,  [chap.  iir. 

supplies  and  took  charge  of  their  booty  but  also  sailed 
to  the  Southern  and  South-Western  coasts,  which  they 
attacked  and  robbed.  The  fate  of  England  trembled  in 
the  balance.  yElfred  and  his  troops  were  perpetually 
marching,  fighting,  and  besieging ;  mostly  with  success, 
but,  at  the  same  time,  with  much  damage  to  the  country. 
He  was  able  to  prevent  fresh  bands  of  Northmen  arriving 
by  sea,  by  means  of  ships  built  during  the  peace.  They 
were  larger,  longer,  and  narrower  than  those  of  the 
Danes,  and  some  had  thirty  oars  to  each  side.  These 
swift  vessels  either  drove  away  the  wandering  galleys  of 
freebooters,  or  boldly  attacked,  boarded,  and  sunk  them. 
This  was  a  revolution  in  naval  warfare.  It  anticipated 
the  modern  theory,  by  which  such  conflict  is  regarded 
mainly  as  a  question  of  momentum  and  impact.  At  the 
close  of  his  reign,  the  fleet  exceeded  in  number  one 
hundred  ships ;  mostly  small,  as  continued  to  be  the 
case  for  six  hundred  years.  But  it  was,  in  a  vague  and 
fitful  sense,  the  beginning  of  England's  power  as  Mistress 
of  the  Seas  ;  although  many  and  severe  struggles,  pro- 
longed during  centuries,  had  to  be  waged  ere  her  sup- 
remacy became  real  and  was  acknowledged. 

Alfred  reigned  only  four  years  after  the  close  of  this 
last  war,  but  he  was  able  to  complete  the  great  work  he 
had  begun.  The  marvel  is  that  amidst  such  harassing 
military  concerns,  such  ceaseless  distractions  and  anxieties, 
and  such  a  long  struggle  for  national  existence,  a  broad 
and  safe  basis  should  have  been  laid  for  the  England  of 
future  ages.  It  is  also  wonderful  that  out  of  such 
unpromising  materials,  and  working  as  he  did  to  a  large 
extent  alone,  this  patriot-King  should  have  succeeded  in 
accomplishing  so  much ;  especially  as  he  suffered  from 
continual  ill-health.  His  friend  Asser,  a  monk  of  St. 
David's,  and  afterwards  Bishop  of  Sherborne,  wrote  his 
biography,  which  is  also  the  story  of  the  national  life  of 
that  time.  Asser's  work  contains  numerous  interesting 
particulars  of  the  character  and  career  of  the  King.  It 
has  been  discredited  by  some  modern  critics,  but,  on  the 
whole,  it  may  be  regarded  as  true  and  faithful.  After 
making  allowance  for  the  hero-worship  of  his  friend  and 
Chronicler,  it  is  apparent  that  /Elfred  possessed  exceptional 
capacities  for  administration.     He  is  one  of  the  few  English 


A.D.  /I10-901.]  THE  FYRD.  47 

monarchs  whose  career  mark  an  epoch.  His  sagacity 
perceived  that  the  pirates  must  be  met  and  resisted  on 
their  own  element.  He  carried  out  a  plan  that  had  been 
slowly  maturing,  and  changed  the  character  of  the  rude, 
imperfect,  and  transient  military  service.  Hitherto,  the 
period  had  been  restricted  to  a  few  weeks,  and  the  raw 
levies  melted  away  like  snow  before  the  sun.  At  the 
best,  they  were  no  match  for  the  discipline  of  the  fight- 
ing men  from  the  North  of  Europe,  to  whom  war  was  a 
trade  and  robbery  an  incentive. 

yElfred  also  gave  form  and  fixedness  to  the  new  order 
of  "  thanes,"  which,  prior  to  the  Danish  irruptions,  had 
begun  to  take  the  place  of  the  earlier  leaders.  Personal 
service  with  the  King  was  rewarded  by  gifts  of  common 
land.  Strictly  speaking,  it  was  not  held  subject  to  military 
aid.  This  was  not  fully  developed  until  the  later  Norman 
times  ;  but  the  germ  of  it  is  found  here.  As  a  territorial 
system,  it  was  incomplete.  There  was  no  supreme  land- 
owner in  England.  The  land  did  not  belong  to  the 
monarch,  as  was  the  case  abroad.  Originally,  the  Fyrd, 
or  militia,  was  the  only  body  of  men  available  for  public 
defence.  The  army  was  simply  a  gathering  of  people 
with  such  weapons  as  they  could  bring.  Military  service, 
in  some  sense,  was  incumbent  on  every  individual ;  but 
the  quality  was  low,  and  the  period  was  restricted  to  the 
imminence  of  the  danger.  Under  y^lfred's  rule,  the 
whole  country  was  apportioned.  Each  district  had  to 
equip  and  sustain  a  man  for  every  five  hides,  or  about 
six  hundred  acres  of  land.  The  towns  were  similarly 
rated,  according  to  their  size.  Freemen  were  still 
required  to  join  the  army  when  needed  ;  but  only 
one-half  of  them  were  called  upon  at  one  time,  so  that 
husbandry  and  industry  might  not  be  unduly  interfered 
with.  Not  until  Norman  days  was  an  effective  national 
force  organized  ;  first  by  military  tenure,  and  then  by 
Scutage,  or  money  payment  in  lieu  of  personal  attend- 
ance. It  is,  however,  incorrect  to  say  that  y^ilfrcd 
divided  the  country  into  shires  and  hundreds.  This 
statement  is  derived  from  the  so-called  Chronicle  of 
Ingulphus,  but  has  no  authority. 

The  prosperity  of  his  people  was  a  matter  of  deep 
concern   with  Alfred.     He  sought  to  diffuse  knowledge 


48  ACCRETION  AND  FORMATION,  [chap.  hi. 

and  to  promote  the  useful  arts.  Learned  and  clever  men 
were  assisted  and  encouraged.  He  himself  translated 
portions  of  Baeda's  '  History,'  and,  possibly,  several  Latin 
books  of  devotion,  into  the  language  of  the  common 
people.  In  his  '  Life '  by  Sir  John  Spelman,  it  is  alleged, 
on  the  authority  of  Archbishop  Parker,  that  he  also 
translated  the  New  Testament,  and  portions  of  the 
Psalms ;  but  this  is  most  improbable,  and  no  evidence 
exists.  In  every  way,  however,  the  use  of  the  vernacular 
was  fostered.  English  prose  then  began  the  early  stage 
of  its  vigorous  life.  A  century  before,  ^Icuin  wrote  of 
England  as  the  home  of  libraries  and  of  learned  men  ; 
but  Alfred  had  to  deplore  the  havoc  caused  by  the 
Danes,  whose  constant  incursions  checked  the  spread  of 
knowledge.  To  remedy  the  mischief,  and  to  restore  the 
earlier  condition  of  literature,  he  founded  schools  in 
connection  with  certain  monasteries,  and  ordered  that 
the  children  of  freemen  should  learn  reading  and  writing. 
Scholars  were  brought  from  France  to  aid  in  this  work. 
He  urged  the  clergy  to  attend  to  their  duties,  and  not 
only  to  teach  the  people  orally,  but  to  set  a  good  example. 
His  own  time  was  carefully  apportioned,  and  all  his  public 
and  private  duties  were  faithfully  discharged.  Half  his 
revenue  was  given  to  the  poor,  to  schools,  to  churches, 
and  to  monasteries.  He  employed  workers  in  gold  and 
other  metals,  and  encouraged  useful  inventions.  Great 
attention  was  bestowed  on  architecture  and  on  public 
works,  on  husbandry  and  shipbuilding,  on  the  main- 
tenance of  order  and  the  administration  of  the  law. 

The  romantic  attachment  of  his  generation  surrounded 
his  memory  with  a  halo  partly  heroic  and  partly  of  saint- 
ship  ;  just  as  the  Egyptians  honoured  Osiris  for  his  wise 
and  benignant  rule,  for  his  salutary  laws,  for  his  instruc- 
tions in  agriculture,  and  for  his  care  of  their  morals.  No 
surprise  will  be  felt  that  the  reverent  and  loving  senti- 
ment of  after  ages  not  only  cherished  these  traditions 
concerning  ^Elfred,  but  added  to  and  embellished  them, 
when  viewed  through  the  dim  mist  of  tradition. 
Modern  eulogists,  led  astray  by  this,  have  ascribed  to 
him  purely  imaginary  exploits,  and  the  origin  of  institu- 
tions of  a  much  later  date.  His  real  fame  does  not  rest 
on  these,  nor  does   its   lustre  need  factitious  splendour. 


A.D.  410-901.]  ALFREDS  WORK.  49 

He  died  on  October  28,  901.  He  was  only  fifty-four 
years  of  age ;  yet,  measured  by  labour  and  by  results, 
his  was  a  long,  worthy,  and  successful  life.  In  his 
closing  hours  he  wrote,  — "  So  long  as  I  have  lived, 
I  have  striven  to  live  worthily."  He  was  never  well ; 
and  was  seldom  free  from  racking  pain,  but  he  bore  up 
bravely,  and  has  gained  for  himself  undying  renown. 
His  wise,  energetic,  patriotic  rule,  with  a  view  to  secure 
justice,  peace,  and  good  government,  has  endeared  him 
to  all  generations.  He  is  the  prototype  of  the  average 
modern  Englishman ;  patient,  resolute,  practical ;  in- 
fluenced by  common-sense ;  inexorably  attached  to 
duty ;  maintaining  order ;  not  troubling  about  logical 
consistency,  but  doing  the  work  and  encountering  the 
difficulties  of  the  moment.  By  universal  consent  he  has 
been  styled  yElfred  the  Great,  for  the  moral  grandeur 
displayed  through  a  life  of  bodily  suffering  and  of  public 
difficulty. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

SAXON    LAWS   AND   USAGES. 
A.D.    600-1000. 

Enough  information  has  been  handed  down  in  Chronicles, 
Charters,  wills,  and  illuminated  manuscripts  to  furnish  a 
picture  of  the  domestic  life  of  England.  Horseflesh  had 
been  freely  eaten,  but  pork  became  the  favourite  meat. 
Enormous  quantities  of  this  were  consumed  \  for  the  diet 
consisted  chiefly  of  animal  food  ;  and  the  Saxons  had  ex- 
traordinary carnivorous  appetites.  The  swineherd  was  an 
important  servant.  He  led  the  pigs  into  the  vast  forests 
and  woods,  where  they  fed  upon  the  acorns,  beech-nuts, 
and  similar  produce,  to  which  the  Saxon  name  of  Mast 
was  given.  The  rich  ate  also  poultry,  venison,  and  fish  ; 
especially  eels,  which  abounded  in  the  numerous  rivers 
and  ponds.  Frequent  mention  is  made  of  salmon,  hake, 
pilchards,  trout,  lampreys,  herrings,  sturgeon,  crabs,  lob- 
sters, sprats,  and  other  fish  that  are  still  found  on  tlie 
English  coasts  and  in  the  rivers. 
6 


50  SAXON  LAIVS  AND  USAGES,     [chap,  i v. 

Nor  were  the  more  delicate  kinds  of  animal  food 
lacking  on  wealthy  tables.  The  narratives  of  the  period 
speak  of  the  noble  hart,  the  wild  boar,  the  peacock,  the 
pigeon,  and  a  variety  of  wild  fowl  caught  with  net,  noose, 
birdlime,  hawk,  or  trap.  Oyster  patties  were  known. 
Fowls  were  stuffed  with  bread  and  parsley.  All  fo>id 
that  required  sweetening  was  treated  with  honey.  The 
keeping  of  bees  was  universal.  Excessive  eating  was 
accompanied  by  hard  drinking ;  strong  ale  and  mead 
being  the  usual  beverages.  The  latter  was  a  sweet 
exhilarating  drink,  made  from  honey,  and  was  of  an 
antiquity  far  older  than  the  legendary  stories.  Both 
ale  and  mead  were  so .  freely  consumed  that  intoxication 
became  a  daily  habit.  The  modern  custom  of  drinking 
in  a  loving  cup  at  civic  feasts  is,  doubtless,  a  survival  of 
the  usage  of  some  companion  standing  up  at  Saxcn 
drinking-bouts  to  guard  against  assassination  the  person 
pledging.  Large  knives  and  spoons  were  used  for 
carving ;  but  fingers  were  the  common  instruments  of 
feeding.  The  rough  and  copious  feasts  of  the  chiefs 
were  attended  by  wandering  minstrels,  or  music  was 
performed  by  some  of  the  guests.  The  harp  was  the 
usual  instrument.  Many  of  the  songs  were  mere  im- 
provisations, setting  forth  the  renown  of  the  host. 
"Great  feasts"  are  sometimes  spoken  of;  meaning 
thereby  the  enormous  quantity  of  the  provisions  and 
drink.  Then,  and  for  centuries  afterwards,  outdoor  work 
and  sports,  with  frequent  fighting,  occupied  the  time  not 
devoted  to  gross  feeding  and  sleep.  Common  labourers 
of  the  present  day  are  far  better  lodged  than  were  these 
Saxon  chiefs. 

Dress  consisted  chiefly  of  coarse  fabrics  of  wool  or  flax, 
roughly  spun.  Sheep  were  prized  more  for  their  fleece 
than  for  their  flesh.  A  short  mantle  was  worn  over 
a  kind  of  coat  or  tunic  with  sleeves,  girded  with  a  belt. 
The  legs  were  protected  by  thick  rolls  of  tanned  skin. 
Women  wore  a  long  loose  robe  of  linen  or  wool,  with 
full  sleeves,  over  a  short  tunic,  and  a  hood  or  veil  on  the 
head.  The  garments  of  ladies  of  rank  were  adorned 
with  broad  borders,  woven  or  embroidered.  Both  sexes 
delighted  in  bright  colours,  and  seem  to  have  been  fonder 
of  gay  attire  than  of  cleanliness.     Persons  of  wealth  wore 


A.D.  600-1000.]  BUILDINGS.  51 

bracelets,  brooches,  and  rings  of  gold  ;  and  ladies  used 
pigments  for  the  complexion.  The  hair  was  cherished 
to  a  great  length.  Yellow,  or  golden,  was  the  prevailing 
shade.  To  pull  the  hair  was  a  serious  offence ;  and 
forcibly  to  cut  or  injure  it  was  as  criminal  as  cutting  off 
the  nose  or  putting  out  the  eyes.  That  the  later  Saxons 
were  not  ignorant  of  the  use  of  the  precious  metals, 
and  had  acquired  some  proficiency  in  the  arts,  appears 
from  what  is  recorded  by  William  of  Poitiers,  chaplain 
to  William  the  Conqueror.  He  mentions  numerous  and 
costly  articles  taken  back  as  spoil  after  the  invasion. 
"  More  wealth  has  the  I3uke  brought  over  from  England 
than  could  be  found  in  thrice  the  extent  of  Gaul."  But 
the  chief  employment  of  the  Saxons  in  the  earlier  times 
was  war;  and  their  chief  pleasures  were  hunting, 
hawking,  and  feasting.  ^thelstan  exacted  from  the 
Welsh,  among  other  articles  of  tribute,  "  as  many  dogs 
as  he  might  choose,  which,  from  their  sagacious  scent 
could  discover  the  retreats  and  hiding-places  of  wild 
beasts  :  and  birds  trained  to  make  prey  of  others  in 
the  air." 

The  above  details  relate  principally  to  the  early 
Saxons.  By  the  time  of  -^^Ifred,  many  changes  had 
taken  place.  He  built  for  himself  stone  dwellings ; 
and  some  of  the  chiefs  imitated  him  ;  but  most  of  the 
people  lived  in  timber  houses,  or  in  huts  of  wicker-work 
plastered  with  clay  and  thatched  with  rushes.  The  art 
of  brickmaking,  which  had  been  brought  to  such  per- 
fection by  the  Romans  in  all  their  colonies,  was  wholly 
lost ;  and  remained  so  for  centuries.  Undoubted  speci- 
mens of  Saxon  church  architecture  remain  ;  such  as  the 
towers  of  Earl's  Barton  in  Northamptonshire,  of  Barton- 
on-Humber,  of  Orrington  and  Bywell  in  Northumber- 
land, of  St.  Benet's,  Cambridge,  and  of  Sompting,  in 
Sussex,  with  the  church  of  St.  Laurence,  Bradford-on- 
Avon,  and  portions  of  St.  Alban's  Abbey,  of  St.  Peter's, 
Oxford,  and  others.  But  the  Saxon  town  was  mostly 
a  collection  of  wooden  houses,  surrounded  by  arable 
land  and  common  pasture,  beyond  which  were  boundless 
woods  where  droves  of  swine  fattened ;  or  vast  meres 
and  lagoons  teeming  with  fish.  The  term  "  hus,"  or 
house,  "was   applied    to   all    dwellings,   great   and   small. 


52  SAXON  LAWS  AND  USAGES,     [chap.  iv. 

The  "  heal,"  or  hall,  or  common  room  of  larger 
buildings,  was  hung  with  tapestry,  made  by  the 
females,  in  cloth  or  silk  ;  often  richly  embroidered.  Such 
possessions  are  frequently  mentioned  in  Saxon  wills. 
Ladies  and  their  maidens  were  skilled  in  needlework, 
which  had  long  been  and  continued  to  be  their  chief 
occupation.  The  word  "  spinster,"  still  applied  to  un- 
married women,  is  derived  from  the  domestic  use  of  the 
distaff  for  spinning.  There  were  no  fire-places  or 
chimneys  in  the  houses.  The  fire  was  kindled  on  the 
ground,  in  the  centre  of  the  hall,  and  the  smoke  escaped 
through  a  hole  in  the  roof ;  as  was  the  practice  in 
ordinary  dwellings  for  centuries.  Benches  were  used  for 
seats.  The  table  was  a  board  on  tressels.  Wheaten 
bread  was  a  luxury  ;  barleycake  or  oatcake  being  com- 
mon. The  bed  was  a  sack  filled  with  straw,  and  laid 
upon  a  bench  or  board.  The  Chronicles  say  nothing  of 
the  domestic  accommodation  of  the  lower  classes,  but 
the  members  of  the  thanes'  households  lived  in  a 
primitive  fashion,  eating  at  the  same  board  with  their 
masters,  though  at  the  extreme  end  of  the  hall,  and 
sleeping  on  the  floor  when  the  day's  work  was  done. 
Field  labourers  and  others  must  have  passed  a  rude, 
rough,  uncertain  existence.  But  the  working  days  were 
fewer,  because  of  the  recurrent  Saints'  days. 

A  gradual  transition  was  made  from  the  wild  and 
wasteful  life  of  the  semi-barbarian,  accustomed  only  to 
arms,  and  subsisting  precariously  upon  the  chase,  with- 
out forethought  or  steady  industry,  to  the  peaceful  and 
laborious  occupation  of  the  artisan.  The  successful 
establishment  among  the  Teutonic  invaders  of  England 
of  the  arts,  and  of  employments  which  have  added  so 
much  to  the  comfort  of  social  life,  is  owing  to  the  early 
ecclesiastics.  They  also  improved  the  condition  of  field 
and  garden  labour.  The  cultivation  of  herbs,  flowers, 
vegetables,  and  fruits,  the  weaving  of  nets  for  fishing,  and 
improvements  in  sheep-rearing  and  in  brewing,  are  due 
to  the  monastery.  Bell-founding  is  specially  monastic, 
and  those  cast  in  the  Middle  Ages  have  never  been 
surpassed  in  quality  of  tone.  Frequent  notices  occur 
of  the  state  of  the  arts  ;  chiefly,  however,  in  reference 
to  the  construction  and  ornamentation   of  churches  and 


A.D.  600-icxx).]  MEDICINE.  53 

monasteries.  Silk,  cloth  of  gold,  purple  palls  and  other 
rich  vestments,  a  tunic  and  bracelets  of  gold,  glass 
manufactures  from  abroad,  paintings  of  saints  and 
illuminated  books,  string  and  wind  musical  instru- 
ments, carved  stones  for  bases,  columns,  capitals,  and 
epistyles  of  churches,  testify  to  the  condition  of  the 
mechanical  and  ornamental  arts.  One  contemporary 
writer  gives  a  minute  and  appreciative  description  of  a 
copy  of  the  Four  Gospels,  written  in  gold,  on  purple- 
coloured  vellum,  bound  in  gold,  set  with  precious  stones, 
and  preserved  in  a  golden  chest.  Specimens  yet  extant 
show  that  this  branch  of  art  had  made  great  advances. 
The  entire  scope  and  tenor  of  later  Saxon  literature 
implies  a  tolerable  degree  of  civilization  ;  using  the  word 
in  a  modified  sense. 

The  Teutonic  races  had  an  extensive  knowledge  of  the 
use  of  simples.  The  names  of  many  medicinal  plants 
occur  in  manuscripts  of  the  time.  Hundreds  of  recipes 
are  still  in  existence,  many  of  which  are  neither  wiser 
nor  more  foolish  than  the  average  amateur  medical 
knowledge  of  the  nineteenth  century.  "  Wortcunning" 
was  the  phrase  usually  applied.  The  gods  themselves 
were  described  as  "charmsmiths."  In  the  use  of  talis- 
mans, the  Saxons  were  not  singular.  They  are  found 
among  the  nations  of  remote  antiquity,  and  are  scattered 
all  over  the  world.  Their  use  is  by  no  means  extinct  in 
the  present  day,  even  in  this  country.  Numerous 
works  on  folk-lore  attest  the  universal  belief  in  charms 
and  omens  in  matters  of  disease,  as  well  as  in  the 
commonest  affairs  of  life.  The  mediaeval  Church,  unable 
to  extirpate  superstitions,  flung  around  them  a  garb  of 
religion,  and  saintly  names  were  used  for  the  exorcising 
of  supposed  devils.  They  were  believed  to  cause  night- 
mare, witchcraft,  sorcery,  storms,  drought,  barrenness, 
and  other  calamities.  Copious  particulars  are  given  in 
Cockayne's  'Leechdoms,  Wort-cunning,  and  Star-craft 
of  Early  England';  in  the  Rolls  Series  of  'Chronicles 
and  Memorials.' 

The  study  of  medicine  as  a  profession,  apart  from  its 
common  domestic  use,  was  exclusively  confined  to  eccle- 
siastics ;  until  forbidden  by  Pope  Innocent  II.  in  the 
twelfth   century.       Many   curious   particulars   of    medical 


54  SAXON  LAIVS  AND   USAGES,     [chap.  iv. 

knowledge  and  practice  are  to  be  found  in  the  legendary 
Lives  of  the  Saints.  Most  of  the  stories  are  incredible,  and 
are  not  worthy  of  serious  notice.  They  were  written,  or 
invented,  for  a  superstitious  age ;  greedy  for  marvels, 
fables,  and  alleged  miracles.  Incidentally,  they  reveal 
some  of  the  characteristics  of  the  time.  One  of  these  is 
the  curious  way  in  which  ancient  votive  offerings  were  per- 
petuated. Sometimes  a  wax  taper  was  presented  as  large 
as  the  sick  person,  or  a  wax  effigy  of  the  patient,  or  of 
the  part  affected.  Among  the  cases  recorded,  a  woman, 
with  gout  in  her  hands,  offers  wax  models  and  obtains  a 
cure.  A  priest,  in  memory  of  recovery  from  sickness, 
presents  a  wax  image  of  himself  in  alb  and  chasuble.  A 
lady  devotes  her  own  beautiful  tresses  at  a  shrine. 
References  constantly  occur  to  the  prevalence  of  the 
plague,  and  of  what  was  called  leprosy.  The  natural 
explanation  is  to  be  found  in  the  lack  of  common 
sanitary  precautions,  and  in  the  coarse  salted  meat  that 
formed  the  staple  food  at  meals  in  the  winter.  Fevers 
were  treated  by  the  heroic  method,  which  continued 
to  prevail  within  living  memory.  Leeches,  bleeding, 
purging,  and  general  depletion  were  freely  used.  Scanty 
knowledge  exists  of  the  medicines  prescribed ;  but  they 
were  mostly  of  vegetable  origin.  Some  kind  of 
anaesthetics  were  employed  in  surgical  operations ;  among 
which  cutting  for  stone  is  mentioned,  and  also  an 
incision  for  rupture.  Tooth-ache  was  prevalent ;  and 
gave  rise  to  endless  quackery  and  the  use  of  charms  and 
amulets.  Where  these  failed,  the  custom  was  to  force 
out  the  tooth  by  means  of  a  pointed  piece  of  hard  wood. 
A  surgical  instrument  is  described  similar  to  the  modern 
cupping-glass. 

The  days  of  the  week  were  named  after  the  principal 
deities ;  modified  from  the  older  planetary  names  of 
Greek  and  Roman  mythology.  These  are  still 
perpetuated ;  and  for  many  centuries  the  tradition  of 
Pagan  observances  remained,  under  such  Christian 
festivals  as  Christmas,  Easter,  and  the  Eve  of  St.  John, 
Many  lingering  superstitions  are  traceable  to  a  Saxon 
origin,  if,  indeed,  as  has  been  already  suggested,  they  do 
not  belong  to  the  Druidical  period.  Certain  days  were 
regarded  as  beneficent  or  maleficent,  in  accordance  with 


A.D.  600-1000.]  LANGUAGE.  55 

usages  or  beliefs  that  are  lost  in  the  dimness  of  Oriental 
antic]uity.  The  names  of  the  months  were  expressive  of 
employments  in  the  various  seasons.  The  Jutes  and  the 
Angles  of  Northern  Europe  had  their  own  war-songs, 
which  they  brought  to  their  island-home.  Chief  among 
them  was  the  heroic  poem  of  Beowulf.  They  must  l)c 
regarded  as  parts  of  an  early  national  literature.  To 
these  must  be  added  the  rude  chants  in  which  they 
glorified  their  conquest  of  Britain.  The  verse  is 
alliterative ;  as  in  the  Norse  and  the  oldest  German 
poetry.  The  epic  poems  are  remarkable  for  a  super- 
abundance of  recurring  epithets  and  bold  metaphors ; 
and  for  a  certain  declamatory  pomp  of  style.  Before  the 
end  of  the  ninth  century,  the  national  language  was 
virtually  fixed  and  settled  in  its  Saxon  form  ;  which  still 
remains  the  basis  of  the  English  tongue,  with  its 
exhaustless  power  of  adaptation  and  absorption.  Judged 
by  the  grammatical  test,  as  Max  Miiller  points  out,  it 
must  be  classed  as  a  branch  of  the  great  Teutonic  stem 
of  the  Aryan  family  of  speech.  It  is  usually  divided, 
though  somewhat  arbitrarily,  into  four  leading  periods  : — 
the  Anglo-Saxon,  a.d.  449-1066;  Semi-Saxon,  1066- 
1250;  Early  English,  1250-1550;  and  the  Modern 
English.  It  has  been  enriched  and  widened  by  many 
French,  German,  Spanish,  Italian,  Greek,  Latin,  and 
other  words,  for  which  the  original  stock  had  no 
equivalents.  The  process  and  the  results  are  described 
in  the  twenty-sixth  Chapter,  when  treating  of  Wycliffe 
and  of  Chaucer. 

Every  monastery  had  its  Scriptorium,  where  patient, 
clever  fingers  transcribed  and  illuminated  portions  of 
Holy  Scripture,  Missals,  Lives  of  Saints,  copies  of  the 
classics,  and  Chronicles.  One  of  the  most  illustrious 
men  of  the  time  was  Bxda,  or  Bede  (673-735),  commonly 
styled  the  Venerable ;  whom  Burke  designates  the 
Father  of  English  Literature.  His  learning  was  extra- 
ordinary; considering  the  age  in  which  he  lived.  His 
diligence  in  collecting  both  written  and  oral  information 
was  unwearied.  A  large  portion  of  his'  "  History  of 
Northumbria"  is  founded  on  local  and  verbal  materials, 
received  from  eye-witnesses,  or  from  persons  of  knowledge 
and    credibility;     the    names    of    his    informants    being 


56  SAXON  LA  IVS  AND  USAGES,     [chap.  iv. 

usually  supplied.  His  treatises  number  forty  in  all, 
on  a  variety  of  subjects  ;  including  homilies,  hymns, 
medicine,  astronomy,  prosody,  chronology,  and  Biblical 
comments.  His  style  is  simple  and  clear.  The  value  of 
his  '  Ecclesiastical  History,'  his  chief  work,  besides  its 
contemporary  authority,  is  enhanced  by  the  judgment, 
fidelity,  and  candour  of  the  author.  Although  contain- 
ing many  legends,  traditions,  and  alleged  miracles,  it 
possesses  much  value  and  interest.  He  was  born  about 
673,  in  the  domain  of  the  united  monasteries  of  St.  Peter 
and  St.  Paul  at  Wearmouth  and  Jarrow-on-Tyne.  In 
his  seventh  year  he  was  placed  in  the  former  of  these 
houses,  whence  he  removed  to  Jarrow,  and  remained 
there  until  death,  overtook  him  in  735,  while  engaged  in 
translating  St.  John's  Gospel  into  Saxon.  This  work, 
revered  in  after  ages,  was  one  of  the  fiist  renderings  into 
the  English  tongue  of  any  portion  of  the  Bible ; 
fragments  by  Aidan,  Bishop  of  Lindisfarne,  who  died 
about  651,  and  by  Aldhelm,  Bishop  of  Sherborne 
(656-709),  bt;ing  excepted.  Unhappily,  it  has  not  come 
down  to  us.  The  story  of  how  his  last  breath  was  spent  in 
dictating  the  closing  words,  if  familiar,  is  very  pathetic. 
A  common  assertion  that  he  translated  the  whole  of  the 
Scriptures  rests  upon  no  adequate  authority.  His  calm 
and  gentle  spirit,  the  humanizing  character  of  his 
pursuits,  and  the  holiness  of  his  life,  are  in  marked 
contrast  to  the  turbulence  and  coarseness  of  his  age.  To 
none  is  the  beautiful  language  of  Scripture  more  appli- 
cable,— "  A  light  shining  in  a  dark  place."  For  a 
lengthened  period  of  four  centuries  afterwards,  no 
historian  worthy  of  the  name  appears  until  the  advent 
of  William  of  Malmesbury. 

Seven  or  eight  years  after  the  birth  of  Bieda,  or  about 
680,  the  first  Anglo-Saxon  poet,  Caedmon,  passed  away. 
Originally  a  cowherd,  he  became  a  monk  of  Whitby, 
and  employed  himself  in  composing  poems  on  the  Bible 
histories,  and  on  miscellaneous  religious  subjects.  Those 
yet  extant  are  nearly  equal  in  size  to  the  half  of 
'  Paradise  Lost.'  There  is  in  the  style  an  occasional 
similarity  which  has  led  to  a  conjecture  that  the  sublime 
genius  of  Milton  may  have  been  influenced  by  the 
simple   yet  solemn  greatness  of  Ca;dmon.     His  descrip- 


A.D.  6oo  looo.]  C^DMON.  57 

tions  of  the  Creation  and  of  the  under-world,  half- 
subUme  and  half-grotesque,  are  also  crude  anticipations  of 
the  finished  and  magnificent  work  of  Dante.  Basda 
records  Caedmon's  life  and  work.  The  only  known 
copy  of  his  poems  is  the  one  found  by  Archbishop 
Ussher,  when  searching  for  manuscripts  to  enrich  the 
library  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin.  This  was  printed  at 
Amsterdam,  soon  after  1650,  and  was  possibly  known  to 
Milton  ;  but  the  resemblances  are  slight,  and  it  must  be 
remembered  that  during  the  intervening  period  the 
subject  of  the  Fall  of  Man  had  been  treated  in  numerous 
Mystery  and  Miracle  Plays,  and  in  poems  and  dramas,  in 
a  style  that  was  of  necessity  somewhat  conventional. 
All  that  can  be  said  is  that  Milton  may  have  obtained 
from  Caedmon  an  occasion-i.l  phrase  or  suggestion, 
which  he  used  just  as  he  did  the  wealth  of  learning 
with  which  his  own  mind  wa§  enriched  from  the  Greek, 
Roman,  Italian,  and  English  classics.  There  is  a  fitting 
poetic  beauty  and  a  tender  strain  of  romance  in  the 
blind  bard  listening  to  and  prolonging  with  a  wider 
sweep  the  strains  of  the  song,  nearly  a  thousand  years 
old,  in  which  the  first  poet  of  his  race  had  sung  concern- 
ing Milton's  own  great  theme.  It  is  a  touching  coin- 
cidence that  both  of  them  gently  passed  away  in  sleep. 

In  the  century  that  followed  Caedmon's  death,  Cynewulf 
is  supposed  to  have  flourished.  His  '  Riddles,'  the 
'  Christ,'  '  Elene,'  and  other  fragments,  must  have  been 
written  between  730  and  780 ;  unless  he  is  identified, 
which  seems  improbable,  with  an  Abbot  of  Peterborough 
who  died  in  10 18.  There  were  also  anonymous 
imitators ;  specimens  of  whose  writings  have  been 
preserved.  The  Collegiate  School  of  York,  under 
Bseda's  friend,  Archbishop  Ecgberht,  flourished  until 
the  Danish  irruption,  and  encouraged  both  Latin 
and  English  literature.  Its  fame  was  perpetuated  and 
its  influence  was  felt  in  Italy  and  Germany,  under  the 
patronage  of  Charlemagne,  through  /Elcuin,  the  literary 
child  and  successor  of  Ba^da,  who  died  on  the  Continent 
in  804.  As  Mr.  Stopford  Brooke  says,  in  his  '  Early 
English  Literature,' — "  It  belongs  to  the  glory  of  England 
to  say  that  it  was  an  English  scliolar  of  York  who,  exactly 
at  the  right  time,  bore  off  to  the  Continent  the  whole  of 


58  SAXON  LAWS  AND  USAGES,     [chap.  iv. 

English  learning,  and  out  of  it  built  a  new  world.  Had 
^-Elcuin  remained  in  England  ;  had  learning  been 
confined  to  our  shores,  it  would  have  perished  in  a  few 
years  under  the  destroying  flood  of  the  Danish  invasions. 
It  lived  and  flourished,  and  brought  forth  a  noble  harvest 
in  the  new  empire."  At  what  period  the  Saxon 
Chronicle  began  to  be  written,  or  by  whom  it  was 
originally  compiled,  cannot  now  be  determined.  It  is 
evidently  the  work  of  several  writers,  for  there  are 
variorum  manuscripts  in  existence,  ending  at  diverse 
dates.  It  was  certainly  commenced  after  the  time  of 
Bseda ;  because  there  are  copious  quotations  and  conden- 
sations from  his  work.  Asser,  who  seems  to  have 
written  the  '  Life  of  JElfred,'  in  895,  used  a  copy  of  the 
Saxon  Chronicle  which  came  down  to  887.  It  was 
subsequently  continued  by  writers  in  different  monas- 
teries. One  copy,  now  in  the  Bodleian  Library,  brings 
the  annals  down  to  11 54.  Allowing  for  the  large 
admixture  of  fable  and  legend  in  the  early  periods,  it 
contains  a  history  such  as  no  other  nation  can  produce, 
written  in  the  vernacular,  and  comparable  only  to  the 
historical  books  of  the  Bible  for  antiquity,  extent,  and 
general  truthfulness. 

yEthelberht  of  Kent  (546-616),  who  ruled  for  fifty-six 
years,  is  chiefly  known  by  a  code  of  laws  bearing  his 
name.  This  code,  using  the  word  in  an  elastic  sense,  is 
evidently  a  compilation ;  but  it  is  the  primal  root  out  of 
which  grew  many  later  English  laws.  Its  chief  feature 
was  the  setting  up  of  a  principle  of  fines  as  the  punish- 
ment of  all  wrong-doing.  The  loss  of  an  eye  or  of  a 
leg  was  punished  by  the  highest  fine  of  fifty  shillings. 
To  be  made  lame  was  set  at  thirty  shillings.  For  a 
wound  that  caused  deafness,  the  mulct  was  twenty-five. 
To  lame  the  shoulder,  to  cut  off  the  thumb,  to  tear  off 
the  hair,  or  to  fracture  the  skull,  involved  a  fine  of 
twenty  shillings.  For  breaking  the  thigh,  cutting  off 
the  ears,  or  injuring  the  teeth,  twelve  shillings.  There 
was  a  gradual  diminution  of  one  shilling  for  each  of  the 
following, — cutting  off  the  little  finger,  piercing  the 
nose,  and  cutting  off  the  forefinger.  Six  shillings  were 
levied  for  cutting  off  the  gold-finger,  or  for  breaking  the 
jaw-bone,    or   an   arm.     For    many    other    injuries    and 


A.D.  600-1000.]       TRIAL  BY  ORDEAL.  59 

offences  a  money  compensation  could  be  claimed ;  the 
appraisement  being  graduated  on  a  comprehensive  scale. 
Ini,  of  Mercia  (688-728),  also  framed  a  code,  on  the  same 
principle.  As  mulcts  were  found  insufficient  to  prevent 
crime,  other  modes  of  punishment  were  used,  such  as 
imprisonment,  outlawry,  banishment,  slavery,  whipping, 
branding,  loss  of  limbs,  mutilation  of  the  nose,  ears,  or 
lips,  plucking  out  the  eyes,  stoning,  and  hanging.  Some 
of  these  reveal  the  barbarous  spirit  of  the  age ;  nor  was 
there  any  material  improvement  for  centuries.  In 
addition,  there  was  the  process  of  trial  called  God's 
Dome,  or,  as  it  is  usually  known,  the  Ordeal.  This  trial 
was  made  by  fire  or  by  water.  The  latter  mode  was 
reserved  for  persons  of  low  degree,  and  was  carried  out 
in  two  ways ;  by  boiling  water,  out  of  which  the 
accused  had  to  take  a  stone  without  scalding  himself; 
and  by  cold  water,  into  which  he  was  thrown.  If  he  did 
not  sink,  he  was  deemed  guilty.  The  trial  by  fire  was 
applied  to  persons  of  rank.  A  consecrated  bar  of  iron 
was  heated,  and  had  to  be  carried  in  the  naked  hand  for 
a  space  of  nine  feet.  The  hand  was  then  wrapped  up 
and  sealed.  Three  days  later,  it  was  examined.  If  no 
sore  appeared,  the  accused  was  decreed  to  be  innocent. 
Sometimes  the  method  pursued  was  to  walk  blind-fold 
over  nine  red-hot  ploughshares.  Such  customs  were  in 
use  all  over  Europe.  They  may  be  traced  back  to  the 
one  provided  under  the  Jewish  Law,  as  set  forth  in  the 
fifth  chapter  of  the  Book  of  Numbers;  though  without 
its  Divine  sanction  and  safeguards. 

Another  code  of  laws  is  known  as  *  /Elfred's  Dom-boc' 
Not  that  the  frequent  recurrence  of  such  phrases  as  the 
Laws  of  Eadgar,  of  ^thelred,  of  Cnut,  and  other  kings 
must  be  understood  to  mean  that  they  had  special  claims 
to  the  character  of  lawgivers.  The  reference  is  to  the 
recognised  customs  observed  at  the  time.  Down  to  the 
fourteenth  century,  the  perpetual  demand  was  for  the  old 
customs.  Many  modern  reforms  are  only  the  restoration 
of  ancient  rights  and  methods.  ^-Elfred's  Dom-boc,  there- 
fore, and  the  various  Codes  above-mentioned,  were  a 
recital  and  a  confirmation  of  what  the  people  valued. 
Some  writers  on  English  constitutional  history  have  been 
betrayed    by  accidental   phrases  and   by   exceptional  cir 


6o  SAXON  LAWS  AND  USAGES,     [chap.  iv. 

cumstances  into  the  conclusion  that  there  were  an 
elaborate  system  of  jurisprudence  and  a  legislative 
assembly,  long  before  Alfred's  time.  The  most  that  can 
be  said  with  accuracy  is  that  while  there  was  the  assertion 
of  what  would  now  be  designated  popular  rights  in  the 
assemblies,  force  of  personal  character  and  the  rule  of  the 
strong  largely  prevailed.  There  was  not  as  yet  any  con- 
scious and  dehberate  attempt  to  formulate  a  scheme. 
The  principal  chiefs,  who,  after  conquering  their  weaker 
neighbours,  developed  into  a  rude  kingship,  consulted 
with  their  personal  adherents.  Then  there  came  to  be  a 
rudimentary  representation,  which  in  process  of  time  was 
extended  as  circumstances  required.  Even  if,  in  early 
Teutonic  assemblies,  every  freeman  had  a  place  and  a 
voice,  it  is  by  no  means  clear  that  this  was  retained  as 
tribes  increased  and  territory  grew.  It  may  have  been 
so  in  England  in  the  local  gatherings,  such  as  are  now 
represented,  at  least  in  theory,  in  parish  council  meetings. 
Whether  it  was  so  in  the  larger  assemblies  to  be  imme- 
diately referred  to,  such  as  the  Hundred,  the  Shire,  and 
the  Witan,  may  be  doubted. 

Into  Alfred's  Dom-boc  were  incorporated,  not  only  the 
Decalogue,  but  also  the  chief  provisions  of  the  Mosaic 
laws  contained  in  the  three  succeeding  chapters  of  the 
Book  of  Exodus ;  with  adaptations  to  local  usages  and 
manners.  To  these  were  added  such  of  the  laws  of 
Alfred's  predecessors  as  seemed  right  to  him  and  to  his 
Council ;  but  he  explains  that  he  refrained  of  set  purpose 
from  new  legislation  to  any  great  extent.  He  was  careful 
to  see  that  the  laws  were  fairly  administered.  He 
punished  judges  and  sheriffs  who  acted  unjustly.  It  has 
been  erroneously  supposed  that  he  introduced  the  practice 
of  trial  by  jury.  The  original  body  was  known  by  the 
name  of  Compurgators.  A  man  charged  with  crime 
might  be  cleared,,  if  a  certain  number  of  known  and 
reliable  persons  came  forward  to  swear  to  his  innocence. 
Hence  they  were  witnesses  to  character ;  not  triers.  In 
no  proper  sense  can  their  functions  be  regarded  as  con- 
taining the  germ  of  the  jury  system.  This  was  not 
developed  until  the  days  of  the  Plantagenets.  If  any  one 
committed  a  crime,  he  had  to  be  produced  by  the  other 
inhabitants   of  the   district,    or   they  were  fined.     If  he 


A.D.  600-I000.]  SLAVERY.  6r 

flf!d  to  another  district,  he  was  seized  as  a  stranger,  and 
imprisoned  or  enslaved,  unless  some  one  became  pledge 
for  him.  Just  as  every  man's  life  had  its  legal  value, 
according  to  his  position  and  wealth,  so  was  the  value  of 
his  oath  determined  in  courts  of  justice.  A  thane's 
equalled  that  of  six  ceorls.  By  the  same  scale  was  regu- 
lated the  money  atonement  payable  for  injuries  and 
wrongs.  It  was  possible  for  a  man  to  rise  into  a  higher 
class  by  the  acquisition  of  land.  He  could  not  count 
nobility  of  blood  until  the  third  generation.  Imme- 
morial custom  easily  acquired  the  force  of  law,  and  the 
frank-pledge  system  became  universal.  By  a  natural 
analogy,  the  usage  was  afterwards  established,  for  the 
English  noble  to  pledge  himself  for  his  dependants ; 
including  military  tenants,  retainers,  and  slaves.  With- 
out a  patron  of  some  kind  "  landless  men  "  were  regarded 
as  vagabonds,  whom  any  one  might  lawfully  seize,  or 
even  slay,  as  suspected  thieves  and  evil  characters.  The 
meaning  was  that  if  a  man  possessed  land,  the  law  had  a 
certain  hold  upon  him.  Otherwise,  he  must  be  connected 
with  some  lord  who  would  assume  the  responsibility  for 
his  acts. 

Slavery  largely  prevailed,  as  it  had  done  among  ancient 
races ;  but  it  did  not,  at  least  by  law,  extend  to  life  or 
limb.  A  servile  condition  was  created  by  capture  in 
war,  by  wrong-doing,  by  descent,  by  the  non-payment  of 
debt,  by  the  sale  of  children,  or  by  a  voluntary  submission 
through  poverty.  The  bulk  of  the  Saxon  people  were  in 
no  proper  sense,  and  at  no  time,  absolutely  free.  Those 
of  the  lower  classes  who  were  so  in  name,  were  virtually 
bound  to  the  soil  from  which  their  subsistence  was 
derived.  The  idea  that  any  man  of  this  order  might  go 
where  he  pleased,  live  as  he  chose,  or  even  express  his 
thoughts  freely,  would  have  been  repugnant  to  the  senti- 
ment of  the  age.  Even  the  possibility  of  a  man,  already 
free,  rising  in  the  social  scale,  was  far  more  than  counter- 
balanced by  the  perpetual  tendency  for  him  to  sink  into 
servitude,  from  the  operation  of  some  of  the  causes  above 
enumerated.  The  Laws  of  ALthehed,  in  1008,  provided 
that  Christian  and  innocent  men  were  not  to  be  sold  out 
of  the  country ;  least  of  all  to  heathen  purchasers.  One 
of  the  last  acts  of  yElfred's  life  was  to  manumit  his  own 


62  SAXON  LAWS  AND  USAGES,      [chap.  iv. 

slaves.  He  also  induced  the  Witan  to  limit  the  future 
period  of  service  to  six  years  in  the  case  of  a  newly-bought 
Christian  slave.  Similar  prohibitions  are  constantly  met 
with,  before  and  subsequently ;  proving  that  while  the 
evil  was  deplored,  legislation  could  not  devise  an  effectual 
remedy.  The  kidnapping  of  children  and  of  poor  free 
persons  was  not  uncommon.  Archbishop  Theobald  of 
Canterbury  (d.  1161)  deserves  honourable  mention  for 
refusing  Christian  burial  to  the  kidnapper,  and  for  pro- 
hibiting parents  from  selling  children  above  the  age  of 
seven.  The  city  of  Bristol  seems  at  an  early  period  to 
have  earned  the  opprobrium  attaching  to  it  in  connection 
with  the  slave-trade  so  late  as  Burke's  time  in  the  end  of 
the  eighteenth  century ;  for  it  was,  even  in  the  Saxon 
era,  the  chief  seat  of  this  hateful  traffic.  But  the  silent 
humanising  influence  of  Christianity  gradually  mitigated 
the  rigours  of  servitude  and  bondage.  On  the  estates  of 
the  Church,  the  slave  had  been  raised  to  the  middle  condi- 
tion of  serfdom,  and  a  reflex  influence  was  brought  to  bear 
upon  the  condition  of  the  whole  class.  In  this  way, 
slavery,  in  its  ruder  forms,  began  to  disappear,  under  the 
teachings  and  influence  of  the  Church.  A  distinct 
upward  step  was  taken  in  the  economic  progress  of  the 
masses  of  the  people  towards  ultimate  freedom  ;  though 
this  was  not  fully  secured  until  a  long  subsequent  period, 
after  Villenage,  as  described  in  the  ninth  and  the  twenty- 
third  Chapters,  had  passed  away. 

The  laws  above-mentioned,  and  those  compiled  by  or 
bearing  the  names  of  subsequent  rulers,  were  made,  as 
Asser  is  careful  to  say  many  times,  "  with  the  counsel  and 
consent  of  the  Witenagemot."  This  word  denoted, 
literally,  "  the  meeting  of  the  knowing  or  wise  men." 
It  was  the  Great  Council  among  the  Saxons,  whose 
opinion  and  advice  guided  the  leader.  It  was  not  even  an 
inchoate  House  of  Lords ;  still  less  a  Parliament  after  the 
modern  idea  of  a  representative  assembly.  There  is  no 
trace  of  elected  members,  or  of  delegates  from  towns  and 
cities,  or  of  an  hereditary  nobility.  Each  of  the  tribes  or 
kingdoms  had  its  own  Witan,  composed  of  the  chief 
ecclesiastics,  the  thanes  or  ealdormen,  and  some  of  the 
principal  owners  of  land ;  being  personal  retainers  of  the 
chief  or  monarch.     Such  bodies  sprung  out  of  the  needs 


A.D.  600-1000.]  THE  WIT  AN.  63 

of  earlier  times,  when  the  chiefs  assembled  the  wisest  of 
their  followers  for  conference.  This  custom  slowly  con- 
creted into  a  right.  Mr.  E.  A.  Freeman  and  Bishop 
Stubbs  agree  in  their  views  as  to  the  powers  of  the  W'itan, 
but  differ  materially  as  to  its  constitution.  The  former 
regards  it  as  the  assembly  of  the  whole  kingdom,  after 
the  type  of  the  smaller  gatherings  of  the  subordinate 
divisions.  The  latter  fully  admits  the  popular  character 
of  the  smaller  assemblies,  but  denies  that  this  was  the 
case  with  the  national  gathering.  It  is  certain,  however, 
that  the  powers  of  the  \\'itan  were  great  and  far-reaching. 
When  kingship  was  set  up,  it  was  in  the  sense  of  a  limited 
monarchy.  The  royal  title  had  to  be  confirmed  by  this 
body,  which  sometimes  set  aside  the  direct  line  of  succes- 
sion. Cases  also  occurred  of  the  deposition  of  unworthy 
monarchs.  Alfred  himself  became  King  to  the  exclu- 
sion of  his  elder  brother's  children.  Disputes  were 
settled  at  these  gatherings  between  powerful  thanes  and 
prelates.  Popular  grievances  of  all  kinds,  especially 
denials  or  perversions  of  justice,  were  dealt  with. 
Consent  was  needful  to  the  making  of  new  laws  and 
treaties,  to  the  granting  of  charters  and  the  transfer  of 
lands,  to  the  declaration  of  war,  to  the  levying  of 
taxes,  and  to  the  general  regulation  of  affairs,  both  civil 
and  ecclesiastical.  The  Witan  became  the  supreme  court 
of  justice.  Meetings  were  held  twice  in  the  year,  at  the 
great  festivals  of  Easter  and  Christmas.  London, 
Gloucester,  Winchester,  and  other  cities  were  the  usual 
places  of  assembly.  The  arrangement  continued,  with 
slight  modifications,  until  Norman  times. 

Next  in  importance  to  the  Witan,  was  the  Scire- 
Gemot,  or  Shire-Moot;  convened  also  twice  a  year. 
The  "  scir  "  was  a  part  or  share  of  the  country  ;  following 
the  old  tribal  divisions.  The  lack  of  uniformity  is  ex- 
plained by  the  gradual  and  irregular  settlements.  It  was 
a  territorial  division ;  much  smaller  than  the  modern 
county.  It  comp'-ised  several  Hundreds,  varying  greatly 
in  number,  and  was  presided  over  by  an  Ealdorman  and 
a  Gerefa.  The  Bishop  also  possessed  large  powers.  The 
Ealdorman  was  a  member  of  the  Witan,  and  commanded 
the  military  force  of  the  district.  He  was  appointed  by 
the  King  and  the  Witan.     A  son  was  often  chosen   to 


64  SAXON  LAWS  AND  USAGES,     [chap.  iv. 

succeed  his  father.  The  position  was  that  of  a  Lord 
Lieutenant,  but  with  more  ample  powers.  The  Gerefa 
or  Sheriff,  who  represented  and  was  appointed  by  the 
monarch,  collected  the  fines  levied  by  the  Courts,  and 
paid  a  fixed  sum  for  the  taxes  ;  thus  opening  the  way  for 
much  oppression  and  extortion.  The  Ealdorman  was 
not  restricted  to  one  shire.  Sometimes  he  ruled  over 
several.  He  was  the  prototype  of  the  Earl,  derived 
from  the  Danish  Jarl,  and  of  the  Comes,  or  Count  of 
the  Normans,  under  whom  the  more  extended  shire  was 
called  a  county. 

After  the  Scire-Gemot  came  the  Hundred-Court,  which 
was  held  monthly.  It  is  defined  by  Bishop  Stubbs  as 
"  the  union  of  a  number  of  Townships  for  the  purpose 
of  judicial  administration,  peace,  and  defence."  Various 
conjectural  explanations  have  been  given  as  to  the  origin 
of  the  Hundred ;  but  nothing  authentic  is  known.  Next 
came  the  Tithings.  Each  of  these  was  made  up  of  ten 
families,  who  were  mutually  responsible  for  their  good 
behaviour  and  peace  :  an  essential  idea  of  Saxon  adminis- 
tration. Life  and  property  were  secured  to  a  man.  not 
by  any  central  authority,  but  by  the  loyal  union  of  his 
free  fellow- citizens.  Mutual  honour  and  courage  formed 
a  system  of  police  in  each  locality.  The  ancient  office  of 
Tithing-man  continued  until  the  end  of  the  last  century 
in  New  England,  whither  it  had  been  transplanted  at  the 
time  of  the  Puritan  settlement  in  1629.  The  functions 
are  now  discharged  by  the  police-constable.  A  similar 
principle  applied  to  the  Hundred,  which  has  long  since 
acquired  a  geographical  meaning,  and  still  has  a  constable 
or  bailiff.  When  any  damage  is  done  by  rioters 
feloniously  destroying  property,  the  owner  has  a  legal 
remedy  against  the  Hundred.  In  other  cases,  the  city 
or  the  town  is  liable. 

In  ancient  times  the  Hundred-Court  consisted  of  the 
lords  of  lands  within  the  bounds,  the  priest,  and  four 
"best  men"  from  each  township,  and  it  sent  twelve 
representatives  to  the  County-Court.  Both  criminal  and 
civil  cases  were  under  its  jurisdiction.  Every  suit  must 
be  there  tried  before  proceeding  to  the  higher  courts, 
which  had  control  over  larger  divisions ;  corresponding 
in  liter  times  to  the  Ridings  of  Yorkshire  and  I.incoln- 


A.D.  600-1000.]  LAND  TEXURE.  65 

shire,  the  Lathes  of  Kent,  and  the  Rapes  of  Sussex.  The 
township  was  the  unit  of  local  rule.  In  process  of  time 
it  assumed  the  ecclesiastical  name  of  parish.  The  modern 
vestry-meeting  is  the  survival  of  the  ancient  usage. 
Wapentake  is  a  term  occurring  in  later  records.  It 
first  appears  in  the  laws  of  Eadgar,  and  is  probably  a 
relic  of  Danish  occupation ;  being  found  only  in  the 
Eastern  and  Midland  districts.  The  custom  of  Gavel- 
kind, still  prevailing  in  Kent  and  in  some  parts  of  North- 
umberland and  of  Wales,  is  the  old  British  law  of 
succession,  which  came  to  be  mingled  with  Saxon  law. 
Under  it,  all  the  sons  inherited ;  but  the  youngest 
possessed  the  homestead.  The  eldest,  or  the  one  next 
following  capable  of  bearing  arms,  had  tlie  heriot,  or  the 
offensive  and  defensive  arms  of  the  father,  and  his  horse. 
The  custom  of  Gavelkind  was  among  the  liberties 
which  the  people  of  Kent  retained  after  the  Norman 
invasion. 

Land  was  held,  partly  by  a  common  ownership,  so  far 
as  regarded  pasture  and  waste  ;  partly,  during  and  after 
yElfred's  time,  by  a  kind  of  military  service ;  but  chiefly 
by  individuals.  The  Folcland,  or  public  domain,  could 
not  be  alienated  without  leave  of  the  Great  Council. 
Bocland  was  so  called  from  the  book  or  charter  which 
conveyed  private  estates.  The  price  of  the  best  land 
was  "sixteen  pennies"  an  acre,  according  to  the  laws  of 
.^thelstan  (a.d.  924-941).  The  price  of  a  sheep  was 
fixed  at  four  pennies ;  of  a  sow  at  eight ;  of  a  cow  at 
twenty ;  and  of  an  ox  at  thirty.  A  pound  of  silver 
contained  five  thousand  four  hundred  grains  Troy 
weight,  and  was  coined  into  two  hundred  and  forty 
pennies.  The  "  sceatta "  is  another  coin  often  men- 
tioned, and  is  thought  to  be  equal  to  the  fourth  of  a 
penny ;  but  its  precise  value  is  undetermined.  The  Mark 
system  was  the  origin  of  all  land  tenure  amongst 
Teutonic  nations.  The  Mark,  or  March,  was  the 
ancient  parish  or  village  community.  It  is  a  German 
geographical  term,  primarily  signifying  a  country's  limits, 
and  used  as  a  designation  of  the  border  districts  of  the 
empire.  The  governors  intrusted  witli  the  charge  ot 
these  were  called  Mark-Grafs ;  corresponding  to  the 
English  and  Scottish  Wardens  of  the  Marches.  The 
7 


66  SAXON  LAWS  AND  USAGES,      [chap.  iv. 

title  of  Marquis  was  originally  bestowed  in  this  sense  as 
early  as  the  reign  of  Henry  III.  It  afterwards  became 
honorary ;  no  specific  duty  of  command  or  protection 
being  attached  to  it.  The  arable  land  of  the  Mark, 
belonging  to  the  whole  tribe,  was  allotted  periodically  to 
the  owners  of  homesteads,  to  be  held  until  the  time 
came  for  it  to  lie  fallow.  As  agriculture  improved,  this 
system  became  impossible.  A  man  who  farmed  better 
than  his  neighbours  was  wronged  by  having  no  longer 
tenure  than  his  idle  or  incompetent  fellows.  Some 
effects  of  the  system  may  still  be  traced. 

The  township  ("tun,"  an  enclosure)  consisted  originally 
of  a  number  of  allodial  proprietors,  banded  together  by 
community  of  interests  and  by  the  position  of  their 
estates.  The  Township — which,  in  the  United  States, 
is  still  a  territorial  name,  not  a  collection  of  houses — took 
the  place  of  the  Mark  in  England.  Although  it  con- 
tained the  germ  of  the  Borough,  it  must  be  discriminated 
from  the  more  modern  Town.  Under  the  Normans,  it 
became  the  Manor.  Strictly  speaking,  the  'I'ownship 
was  a  developed  and  altered  form  of  the  ancient  Mark ; 
another  trace  of  which  is  seen  in  the  possession  of 
common  pasture  and  waste  land  by  certain  communities. 
In  the  absence  of  direct  evidence,  the  most  reasonable 
hypothesis  is  that  the  manorial  system  grew  up  in 
Britain  as  in  Gaul  and  Germany ;  being  the  product  of 
native  and  Roman  customs  mixing  together  during  the 
periods  of  successive  provincial  rule  and  of  German 
conquest.  There  may  have  been  exceptional  instances 
of  settlements  in  tribal  households,  or  even  of  free 
village  communities.  Yet  it  is  almost  certain  that  the 
"hams"  and  "tuns"  or  "tons"  of  early  England  were, 
practically,  manors,  with  communities  in  serfdom  upon 
them.  Sir  Henry  Maine,  in  his  'Village  Communities,' 
and  Bishop  Stubbs,  still  more  minutely  and  carefully,  in 
his  '  Constitutional  History,'  have  entered  fully  into  the 
subject  of  the  ancient  Mark  in  its  territorial  and  social 
bearings.  The  Borough  ("  burh,"  a  fortified  place)  was 
originally  a  centre  for  defence  and  for  trade  ;  the  former 
being  necessary  to  the  latter.  Some  English  boroughs 
grew  out  of  townships,  as  understood  in  their  terri- 
torial  meaning.     Others    sprang    up    under    the   shelter 


A.D.  600-1000.]  LONDON.  67 

of  castles  or  monasteries,  payment  being  made  for  pro- 
tection. The  chief  magistrate  was  the  town-reeve,  or,  in 
purely  mercantile  towns,  the  port-reeve.  Gradually, 
exemption  was  obtained  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Hundred ;  but  that  of  the  Shire  continued.  Some 
compounded  for  the  taxes,  and  possessed  a  local  govern- 
ment free  from  the  sheriff  or  the  lords  of  the  soil.  The 
five  Danish  boroughs  of  Nottingham,  Lincoln,  Leicester, 
Stamford,  and  Derby  had  a  separate  organization  and 
special  privileges.  Domesday  Book  specifies  forty-one 
towns  with  customs  of  their  own,  and  ten  are  mentioned 
as  being  fortified. 

Before  the  Danish  Conquest,  London  was  an  important 
city.  It  was  not  yet  the  capital ;  for  other  cities,  like 
Winchester,  Exeter,  Norwich,  and  York  had  local  pre- 
tensions that  could  not  be  set  aside.  Yet  its  geographical 
position  made  it  a  great  centre  for  trade  and  for  legis- 
lative gatherings.  It  retained  the  character  which 
appertained  to  it  since,  and  perhaps  even  before,  the 
Roman  occupancy.  Alfred  erected  there  a  citadel  for 
defence.  This  gave  place  to  the  grim  and  massive 
Norman  fortress,  resembling  Cyclopean  masonry,  which 
became  the  abode  of  kings,  and,  subsequently,  the  prison 
of  many  victims  of  Statecraft.  Numerous  ships  from 
London  sailed  the  Northern  Seas  and  the  Mediterranean  ; 
bringing  thence  for  the  enrichment  of  her  merchants  the 
choice  and  varied  products  of  foreign  climes.  Its  growth 
in  wealth  appears  in  the  apportionment  of  ten  thousand 
five  hundred  pounds  of  silver,  as  a  contribution  towards 
the  tax  of  the  Danegeld,  in  10 18,  when  the  rest  of  the 
country  paid  only  seventy-two  thousand.  Norwich  held 
in  East  Anglia  a  position  corresponding  to  that  of 
Exeter  in  the  West.  On  a  commanding  height  a  fortress 
had  been  raised  ;  to  be  supplanted  in  after  times  by  one 
of  the  stateliest  of  Norman  castles.  The  cathedral  had 
not  yet  been  built.  The  seat  of  the  diocese  was  at 
Elmham.  Norwich  was  a  great  centre  of  trade,  and  it 
jiossessed  a  mint.  Thirty  miles  away,  Thetford,  now  a 
decayed,  sleepy  little  town,  almost  rivalled  its  neighbour, 
and  was  afterwards  the  See  of  a  bishop. 

All  these  towns,  and  many  others,  have  an  origin  so 
remote    that    it    cannot    be    determined    with    accuracy 


68  RISE  OF  ECCLESIASTICISM.      [chap.  v. 

Their  prescriptive  privileges  are  immemorial,  and  are 
part  of  the  common  heritage  of  the  nation.  Their 
customs,  which  slowly  concreted  into  laws,  were  not 
capricious  grants,  any  more  than  those  of  the  ancient 
Shire  or  the  Hundred.  Long  afterwards  another  class 
of  towns  arose,  created  by  express  grant  from  the  King 
or  from  some  powerful  lord,  or  bishop,  or  abbot,  as 
explained  in  the  twenty-third  Chapter.  But  the  older 
cities  had  their  franchises  and  usages,  sanctioned  and 
consecrated  by  long  custom,  stretching  back  until  lost  in 
a  remote  and  unrecorded  Past.  As  was  the  case  with 
the  ancient  Greeks,  who  had  their  benefit  clubs,  with  a 
common  chest,  to  which  every  member  contributed  his 
share  of  the  expenses,  the  Saxons  had  similar  confedera- 
tions, called  Guilds  ;  from  "  gyldan,"  to  pay  or  contribute 
a  share.  These  were  applied  to  religious,  trade,  and 
benevolent  purposes.  The  archaic  phrase,  Scot  and 
Lot,  is  derived  from  two  Saxon  words,  and  refers  to  the 
payment  of  customary  contributions  according  to  ability, 
and  to  the  discbarge  of  the  individual  share  of  public 
duties.  This  is  perpetuated  in  the  quaint  words  of 
declaration  on  becoming  a  freeman  of  the  City  of 
London,  in  which  the  neophyte  declares  that  "  he  will 
pay  his  scot  and  bear  his  lot." 


CHAPTER  V. 

RISE   OF    ECCLESIASTICISM. 
A.D.    597-1042. 

A  MEMORABLE  event  in  the  national  history  was  the 
introduction  of  Christianity  among  the  Saxons  of  Kent 
by  St.  Augustine  ;  the  Apostle  to  the  English.  He  was 
sent,  in  597,  with  forty  monks,  by  Pope  Gregory  the 
Great  (b.  544,  r.  590-604),  who  had  long  cherished  the 
design  of  such  a  mission.  To  that  able  and  distinguished 
Pontiff,  the  equal  in  ability,  and  the  superior  in  character 
to  Innocent  HL,  Leo  X.,  and  Hildebrand,  the  Roman 
Church  is  indebted  for  the  complete  organization  of  her 


A.D.  597-I042.]      NOMINAL  CONVERTS.  69 

public  services  and  the  details  of  her  ritual ;  for  great 
improvements  in  sacred  music,  his  name  being  honour- 
ably perpetuated  in  the  Gregorian  Tones,  or  Chants  \ 
and  for  his  lirm  and  upright  administration.  St.  Augus- 
tine came  to  King  /Ethelberht,  who  had  married  Bertha, 
daughter  of  the  Prankish  King  Charibert  of  Paris,  and 
had  agreed  to  allow  her  the  free  exercise  of  her  re- 
ligion. Canterbury  was  assigned  as  a  place  of  residence 
for  the  monks.  Their  preaching  was  successful,  so  far 
as  nominal  converts  went,  as  is  usually  the  case  under 
intense  excitement,  or  the  imitative  faculty  induced  by 
novelty,  or  the  influence  of  example  backed  by  authority. 
yEthelberht  and  ten  thousand  of  his  subjects  are  said,  in 
the  loose  enumeration  of  that  day,  to  have  been  baptized. 
In  604,  his  nephew,  the  King  of  Essex,  and,  shortly 
afterwards,  the  King  of  East  Anglia,  also  fell  into  the 
fashion.  Augustine  himself  had  nothing  to  do  with 
these,  for  he  died  in  that  year,  and  his  labours  were 
chiefly  restricted  to  Kent.  Such  wholesale  and  multi- 
tudinous conversions  were  not  lasting.  Many  of  the 
newly-baptized  heathen  remained  in  a  state  of  Paganism. 
Their  so-called  Christianity  was  not  even  skin-deep. 

/Ethelberht  died  twelve  years  after  Augustine,  and 
his  people  relapsed.  Even  so  late  as  1008,  one  of  the 
laws  of  ^thelred  directed  heathenism  to  be  cast  out ; 
which  cannot  be  explained  solely  by  reference  to  the 
Danish  settlers.  Yet  the  presence  and  teaching  of  a  l)ody 
of  priests  must  have  had  a  salutary  influence  ;  the  effects  of 
which  were  seen  in  future  years.  At  that  time  the  priest- 
hood was  frcQ  from  many  of  the  corruptions  and  vices 
which  afterwards  appeared.  Other  missionary  enter- 
prises were  carried  on  later,  in  Wessex,  Northumbria, 
and  Mercia,  by  itinerant  preachers,  from  Scotland,  Ireland, 
Italy,  and  elsewhere.  Not  until  after  the  middle  of  the 
seventh  century  did  Theodore  of  Tarsus,  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury  from  668  to  690,  undertake  the  work  of 
church  organization  in  England  on  the  Roman  model, 
and  of  welding  together  the  churches  of  the  several 
independent  kingdoms.  The  large  primitive  dioceses 
were  then  divided  ;  an  incipient  parochial  system  appeared, 
somewhat  conterminous  with  the  settled  area  of  tlir 
landowner ;  discipline  was   strengthened ;   and   theic   wa:: 


70  RISE  OF  ECCLESIASTICISM.      [chap.  v. 

a  speedy  development  of  monasticism.  Theodore  was 
the  seventh  Archbishop,  dating  from  Augustine.  Under 
royal  sanction,  he  offered  the  perpetual  patronage  of 
churches,  as  an  inducement  to  their  erection  ;  so  that 
Blackstone's  theory  is  probably  the  true  one.  But  for 
many  ages  the  right  of  presentation  had  no  direct  money 
value,  and  it  was  never  intended  to  be  a  matter  for 
barter ;  being  merely  a  trust  for  the  good  of  the  Church 
and  of  religion  in  the  locality. 

Polemical  zeal  clings  to  the  figment  of  an  earlier 
British  Church  ;  with  an  elaborate  ritual ;  gradations  of 
rank  ;  and  the  transmission  of  sacramental  grace  in  an 
unbroken  stream.  This  is  sustained  by  nothing  worthy 
of  being  regarded  as  evidence.  The  spirit  of  sacer- 
dotalism projects  itself  back  for  nearly  two  thousand 
years,  and  usually  finds  what  it  seeks,  after  more  or  less 
of  floundering  in  the  vast  quagmires  of  patristic  anti- 
quarianism.  Rhetorical  flourishes  in  Tertullian  and 
Eusebius,  and  in  one  or  two  of  the  Fathers,  are  made  to 
bear  a  forced  meaning.  Legendary  stories  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  about  supposed  visits  to  this  country  by  Joseph  of 
Arimathea  and  by  St.  Paul  with  alleged  representatives 
from  Britain  at  the  Councils  of  Aries  and  of  Nice,  in  314 
and  325,  and  similar  conjectures  of  later  times,  are  inade- 
quate to  prove  the  existence  of  an  ecclesiastical  hierarchy 
in  Britain.  Traditions  relating  to  it  originated  long 
afterwards,  and  are  not  trustworthy.  They  are  as 
shadowy  and  unsubstantial  as  the  Fata  Morgana  of 
Arthurian  legend.  Even  Gildas  (516-570),  attempts  no 
explanation  as  to  the  origin  of  the  English  Church. 
There  may  have  been  scattered  converts  and  small  com- 
munities here  and  there  ;  the  results  of  some  Christian 
colonists  during  the  Roman  occupancy,  or  of  zealous 
though  fugitive  missionary  enterprise  on  the  part  of  the 
monks  who  settled  in  lona  with  St.  Columba,  in  563,  and 
who  laboured  in  the  Northern  part  of  Britain  and  in 
Ireland,  or  of  those  who  went  forth  from  Lindisfarne,  or 
Holy  Island,  afterwards  identified  with  St.  Cuthbert, 
who  died  in  687.  His  predecessor  was  the  renowned  St. 
Aidan,  who  went  from  lona  in  634  to  re-convert  the 
people  of  Northumbria,  after  one  of  the  periodical  battles, 
ravages,    and   relapses.       Bceda   says  that   charity,   gentle- 


A.D.  S97-I042.]     ORIGIN  OF  ENGLISH  CHURCH.       71 

ness,  humility,  fearlessness,  and  absolute  devotion  to  his 
work  were  the  especial  traits  of  Aidan's  character. 

It  is  incredible,  however,  in  the  absence  of  clear  and 
reliable  testimony,  that  any  national  church  organization, 
in  the  proper  sense  of  the  term,  was  to  be  found  in  any 
part  of  Britain  prior  to  the  arrival  of  St.  Augustine.  If 
so,  it  is  extraordinary  that  it  should  have  become  extinct 
and  forgotten ;  and  that  no  effort  was  made  by  the  pre- 
tended British  Church  to  convert  the  Saxon  settlers. 
Their  conquest  of  the  country  was  effected  with  such 
thoroughness  that  Christianity,  such  as  it  was,  lingered 
only  in  sequestered  nooks  ;  chiefly  in  Wales,  as  Milman 
shows.  There  is  absolutely  no  continuity  between  British 
and  English  Christianity.  The  land  practically  relapsed 
into  Paganism,  out  of  which  parts  of  it  had  emerged 
only  in  name,  and  the  work  of  a  nominal  conversion  to 
Christianity  had  to  be  performed  over  again.  Dean 
Hook  admits,  in  the  article  in  his  '  Dictionary '  on  the 
Early  British  Church,  that  there  was  no  distinct  con- 
tinuity between  it  and  the  one  founded  by  Augustine  ; 
adding,  that  after  his  arrival,  the  conversion  of  England, 
especially  the  Northern  parts,  was  largely  due  to  Celtic 
missionaries ;  who  are  in  no  way  to  be  regarded  as 
emissaries  or  representatives  of  the  British  Church. 
Such  feeble  and  pietistic  stories  as  '  Daybreak  in  Britain,' 
by  Miss  C.  Tucker  ("  A.L.O.E."),  are  wholly  unworthy 
of  credence  as  historical  facts.  They  are  the  worst  kind 
of  romances. 

The  modern  Church  of  England,  notwithstanding 
ignorant  and  clamorous  denials,  and  laboured  attempts 
to  trace  it  back  to  Apostolic  times,  is  a  child  of  the 
Church  of  Rome,  above  and  beyond  all  the  other  eccle 
siastical  establishments  of  Europe.  This  is  the  opinion 
of  E.  A.  Freeman  ;  who  adds, — "  In  after  times,  certain 
British  dioceses  submitted  to  English  ecclesiastical  rule  ; 
and  that  is  all.  The  Christianity  of  England  did  not 
come  wholly  from  any  single  source  ;  and  one  of  the 
sources  from  which  it  came  was  found  within  the  British 
islands.  But  that  source  was  not  a  British  source.  .  .  . 
Theologians  may  dispute  over  the  inferences  to  be  drawn 
from  the  fact  ;  but  the  historical  fact  cannot  be  altered  to 
please  any  man.   .  .  .   England  was   the  special  conciuest 


72  RISE  OF  ECCLESIASTICISM.      [chap.  v. 

of  the  Roman  Church  ;  the  first  land  which  looked  up 
with  reverence  to  the  Roman  Pontiff;  while  it  owed  not 
even  a  nominal  allegiance  to  the  Roman  Caesar."  Not 
much  importance  attaches  to  the  alleged  massacre  of  two 
thousand  British  monks  at  Bangor  in  613.  Specific 
numbers  relating  to  remote  times  must  always  be  accepted 
with  reserve.  That  a  slaughter  took  place  is  conceivable, 
but  if  so,  it  was  nine  years  after  the  death  of  Augustine. 
Twenty  might  easily  be  magnified  into  two  hundred,  and 
then  into  two  thousand.  The  later  dispute  between  the 
Roman  clergy  and  so-called  British  clergy,  as  in  the 
Synod  or  Council  of  Whitby,  in  664,  turned  upon  minor 
matters,  such  as  the  supremacy  of  Rome,  the  mode  of 
administering  the  rite  of  baptism  and  of  celebrating  Mass, 
the  shape  of  the  tonsure,  and  the  date  of  observing  Easter. 
Milton,  in  his  treatise  '  Of  Prelatical  Episcopacy,'  says 
of  Patristic  authority  : — "  Whatsoever  Time,  or  the 
heedless  hand  of  blind  chance,  hath  drawn  down  from  of 
old  to  this  present  in  her  huge  drag-net,  whether  fish  or 
seaweed,  shells  or  shrubs,  unpicked,  unchosen — these  are 
the  Fathers."  He  contemptuously  dismisses  the  "need- 
less tractates  stuffed  with  specious  names,  with  fragments 
of  old  martyrologies  and  legends,  to  distract  and  stagger 
the  multitude  of  credulous  readers,  and  mislead  them 
from  their  strong  guards  and  places  of  safety  under  the 
tuition  of  Holy  Writ."  He  examines  minutely  and 
critically  the  plea  set  up  for  apostolical  succession,  and 
his  conclusions  have  never  been  disproved.  How  far  the 
Saxon  Church  as  founded  by  Augustine  was  identical  and 
homogeneous  with  the  nation,  is  open  to  serious  doubt. 
Professional  pride,  as  is  natural,  constructs  an  elaborate 
theory,  which  the  few  known  facts  do  not  sustain.  The 
revived  spirit  of  ecclesiastical  mediaevalism  in  the  nine- 
teenth century  has  gone  into  ecstasies  over  the  supposed 
triumphs  of  what  are  called  the  Ages  of  Faith.  Testi- 
mony, in  support  of  all  this  rhetorical  adulation  is  sadly 
lacking.  What  evidence  exists,  tends  in  the  opposite 
direction.  It  is  not  a  pleasant  task  to  dissipate  an 
illusion,  but  this  one  is  nothing  but  the  product  of  vivid 
clerical  fancy.  Modern  Nonconformists  also  sometimes 
indulge  in  the  pious  fraud  of  tracing  specific  local  church 
organizations   to   the    lijectment   of    1662,    though   there 


A.D.  597-1042.]    ST.  AUGUSTINE  OF  HIPPO.  73 

may  be  an  entire  absence  of  historical  continuity,  and 
little  or  no  affinity  either  in  doctrine  or  in  polity.  For- 
tunately, the  Christian  life  is  not  a  matter  of  ecclesiastical 
lineage  or  of  visible  outward  uniformity. 

The  distinguished  missionary,  Augustine,  must  not  be 
confounded  with  his  more  illustrious  namesake,  St. 
Augustine  of  Hippo  (a.d.  354-430);  the  greatest  theo- 
logian of  the  Latin  Fathers,  and  the  pupil  and  friend  of 
St.  Ambrose  of  Milan.  What  are  known  in  church 
history  as  the  Donatist  and  Pelagian  controversies, 
towards  the  end  of  the  fourth  century,  called  forth  all  the 
powers  of  Augustine's  keen  and  trained  intellect.  No 
one  exerted  for  generations  such  a  commanding  influence 
over  Western  Christendom.  He  is  one  of  the  formative 
minds  that  appear  at  long  intervals.  In  his  '  Confes- 
sions,' which  form  a  deep,  earnest,  sacred  autobiography, 
there  are  passages  that  have  no  parallel,  except  in  the 
Psalms  of  David  ;  but  his  '  City  of  God,'  finished  in  426, 
in  his  seventy-second  year,  is  considered  the  greatest  of 
his  numerous  productions.  In  spite  of  manifest  draw- 
backs, it  is  a  monument  of  human  genius,  and  is  one 
of  the  works  to  which  immortality  belongs.  His  name 
is  indissolubly  connected  with  a  system  of  doctrine  around 
which  a  fierce  controversy  waged  for  ages  in  England  and 
on  the  Continent.  Its  distinguishing  points  are  his 
theories  respecting  original  sin,  predestination,  grace, 
reprobation,  final  perseverance,  and  .  free-will.  These 
doctrines,  first  systematized  by  him,  were  derived  from 
the  Manichasans  of  the  third  century,  and  are  traceable, 
in  various  forms,  to  the  Primitive  Church.  Apart,  how- 
ever, from  dogmatic  theology,  and  its  endless  and  virulent 
controversies,  the  appearance  of  such  a  man  as  St. 
Augustine  of  Hippo  marks  an  era  in  the  history  of 
human  thought.  His  influence,  as  transmitted  through 
Calvin,  was  largely  felt  in  England,  especially  during 
the  storms  of  the  Reformation,  and  it  continues  to 
operate  to  this  day  throughout  Christendom. 

During  the  time  of  the  partition  of  England  into 
separate  kingdoms,  several  of  the  chiefs,  especially  of 
Wessex  and  of  Mercia,  made  gifts  and  are  said  to  have 
ordered  payments  in  favour  of  the  Church  at  Rome,  with 
a  view  to  secure  a  belter  reception  of  pilgrims,  or  to  pur- 


74  RISE  OF  ECCLESIASTICISM.      [chap.  v. 

chase  some  immunity  or  privilege.  Such  payments  were 
either  regular  and  generous,  or  fitful  and  stingy  ;  according 
to  the  hot  or  cold  measure  of  zeal  that  happened  to 
prevail  at  the  time.  Offa,  of  Mercia,  in  787,  induced  the 
Pontiff  to  consent  to  a  partition  of  the  great  province  of 
Canterbury.  A  new  archbishopric  was  formed,  with  its 
seat  at  Lichfield,  and  the  Sees  within  the  Mercian  king- 
dom were  subordinated  to  it.  The  arrangement  speedily 
came  to  an  end,  but  its  temporary  success  was  purchased 
by  a  bribe,  out  of  which  arose  the  subsequent  claim  of 
Peter's  Pence ;  a  nominal  levy  of  a  penny  upon  each 
house.  No  authority  exists  for  the  assertion  that  Ini, 
or  any  other  Saxon  king,  paid  a  similar  tribute,  in  725, 
for  the  support  of  an  English  school  in  Rome,  .^thel- 
wulf,  about  the  year  855,  probably  as  one  result  of  a  visit 
there,  made  a  gift  which  is  commonly  supposed  to  be  the 
origin  of  tithes  in  England.  It  was  a  personal  act,  and 
had  no  legislative  sanction  or  national  obligation.  The 
greater  part  of  the  country  was  forest,  heath,  or  mere : 
and  on  no  principle  of  equity  could  a  charge  be  created 
on  the  industry  of  future  and  remote  generations,  on 
account  of  unreclaimed  land,  by  the  precarious  titular 
ruler  of  a  small  district. 

Local  customs  had  probably  operated  prior  to  that 
time,  although  no  means  existed  of  enforcing  payment, 
either  by  temporal  or  spiritual  penalties.  Tithes  then 
became  territorial,  or  tribal ;  rather  than  general.  The 
whole  subject  of  their  legal  imposition  is  wrapped  in 
impenetrable  obscurity.  Voluntary  offerings,  and  exhor- 
tations to  spontaneous  benevolence,  slowly  crystallized 
into  custom,  and  then  into  law ;  enforced  by  spiritual 
claims  and  threats,  as  clerical  power  grew.  Selden  states 
that  for  the  first  four  centuries  of  the  Christian  era, 
tithes  were  unknown ;  even  as  voluntary  offerings. 
•Ecclesiastical  authority  in  the  sixth  century  imposed 
them  as  a  duty,  but  they  were  still  regarded  as  voluntary 
gifts.  Dean  Milman  thus  refers  to  the  origin  of  the 
system  in  the  Western  Empire  : — "  On  the  whole  body 
of  the  clergy  Charlemagne  bestowed  the  legal  claim  to 
tithe.  It  was  by  no  means  a  spontaneous  votive  offering 
of  the  whole  Christian  people  ;  it  was  a  tax  imposed  by 
Imperial   authority,    enforced    by    Imperial   power."      Sii 


A.D.  597-I042.]  TITHES.  75 

Walter  Phillimore  concurs  in  this.  Bishop  Stubbs 
attributes  the  charge  to  the  Legatine  Councils  held  in 
England  in  787,  under  the  authority  of  kings  and 
ealdormen  ;  eight  years  later  than  the  order  of  Charle- 
magne. He  adds,  that,  "  except  as  showing  the  sanctity 
of  the  tenth  portion,  the  famous  donation  of  yEthelwulf 
had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  tithes."  The  applica- 
tion of  money  thus  raised  by  subsequent  legislation  was 
capricious,  and  mainly  local.  Not  until  the  year  1200 
was  the  principle  afifirmed  that  the  clergy  had  the  first 
claim  upon  tithe,  even  from  newly-cultivated  land. 
Originally,  the  amount  seems  to  have  been  divided  into 
three  equal  portions ;  for  the  relief  of  the  poor,  for  the 
repair  and  ornamentation  of  the  fabric  of  the  church,  and 
for  the  maintenance  of  the  clergy. 

The  payment  of  Peter's  Pence  was  entirely  suspended 
during  the  Danish  invasion.  Cnut  wished  to  atone  in 
some  measure  for  the  evil  which  his  pagan  forefathers 
had  wrought ;  to  secure  spiritual  ratification  for  his  own 
policy ;  and  to  surpass  his  predecessors  in  the  munificence 
of  his  gifts.  After  a  pilgrimage  to  Rome,  in  1030,  in 
conformity  with  a  custom  deemed  highly  meritorious,  he 
revived  the  payment ;  at  the  rate  of  a  penny  for  each 
house.  This  was  not  meant  as  an  admission  of  a  right, 
but  as  a  friendly  and  voluntary  gift.  In  the  course  of 
time,  when  later  Popes  claimed  to  rule  as  temporal  sove- 
reigns, and  asserted  a  supremacy  not  only  over  all  other 
bishops  but  over  Lings  and  emperors,  payment  was  de- 
manded as  their  unquestioned  due.  By  such  gradual 
and  boldly-cautious  steps,  like  a  man  feeling  his  way  in 
the  dark  ■  ver  an  uncertain  path,  was  this  far-reaching 
domination  secured.  No  one  then  suspected  what  might 
result  from  the  annual  offering  of  Peter's  Pence ;  yet, 
within  half  a  century,  Rome  claimed  to  treat  England  as 
a  fief,  to  be  given  or  bartered  away  at  its  discretion.  For 
five  hundred  years,  continual  disputes  and  quarrels  oc- 
curred on  these  and  kindred  matters,  between  successive 
Popes  on  the  one  side,  and  English  Kings,  Great 
Councils,  and  Parliaments  on  the  other ;  until  the 
quarrel  was  finally  ended  by  the  passing  of  such  Statutes 
as  those  relating  to  Provisors  of  Benefices,  to  Mortmain, 
to  Appeals  to  Rome,  and  to  the  Ro)al  Supremacy. 


76  RISE  OF  ECCLESIASTICISM.      [chap.  v. 

Long  before  the  time  of  Cnut,  the  riches,  pride,  idle- 
ness, and  vices  of  many  of  the  clergy  were  matters  of 
complaint.  A  professional  order  of  priests,  whether 
Christian  or  Pagan,  Romanist  or  Protestant,  is  always  a 
menace  to  a  community.  Monachism,  in  any  of  its  forms, 
however  pure  and  lofty  the  original  inception,  invariably 
becomes  debased  and  corrupt.  Ascetics,  anchorites, 
eremites,  and  cenobites  of  every  kind,  have  always  and 
speedily  fallen  from  their  high  ideal.  The  abuses  which 
arose,  even  in  early  ages,  are  deplored  by  the  Fathers 
who  are  most  fervid  in  praising  the  institution  itself.  St. 
Anthony  of  Thebes,  who  died  in  356,  is  regarded  as  the 
founder  of  Monachism  ;  but  it  had  prevailed,  long  before, 
among  the  Jewish  Essenes,  the  Buddhists  of  China, 
the  Brahmins  of  India,  and  other  ancient  Oriental 
peoples.  It  was  first  introduced  into  the  West,  in  Rome 
and  in  Northern  Italy,  by  Athanasius ;  into  Africa  by 
Augustine  of  Hippo ;  and  afterwards  into  Gaul  by 
Martin  of  Tours.  Whether  Augustine  framed  any 
formal  rule  of  monastic  life,  is  uncertain ;  but  one  wos 
deduced  from  his  copious  writings,  and  was  adopted,  at 
various  times,  by  as  many  as  thirty  fraternities.  The 
Canons  Regular  of  his  Order  appear  to  have  been  founded 
or  remodelled  about  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century. 
They  had  about  one  hundred  and  seventy  houses  in 
England ;  one  of  the  most  famous  being  still  known, 
after  sundry  mutations,  as  Austin  Friars,  in  the  City 
of  London,  near  the  Bank  of  England.  It  was  founded 
in  1253,  by  Humphrey  de  Bohun,  Earl  of  Hereford,  and 
speedily  became  one  of  the  wealthiest  in  the  metropolis. 
This  ancient  church  has  been  used  for  more  than  three 
centuries  by  the  Dutch  community,  whose  ancestors  were 
driven  out  of  the  Netherlands  by  persecution. 

The  early  monks  were  not,  in  the  proper  sense,  clergy- 
men. They  were  not  entrusted  with  the  cure  of  souls. 
They  neither  preached,  nor  heard  confessions,  nor  ad- 
ministered the  Sacraments,  nor  exercised  ordinary 
spiritual  functions.  Strictly  speaking,  they  were  laymen, 
living  in  a  brotherhood ;  subject  to  vows  of  celibacy  and 
obedience,  with  a  community  of  goods.  They  had  the 
disposal  of  their  own  time  and  industr}',  and  the  maxim. 
Ora  ct  Labota,  was,  at  the  first,  strictly  observed.     Thus- 


A.D.  597-1042.]     THE  BENEDICTINES.  77 

they  differed  from  the  monks  of  a  later  age  in  some 
important  respects.  The  famous  Order  of  Benedictines 
was  so  called  from  their  founder,  a  native  of  Umbria,  in 
Italy  (480-543).  They  professed  to  seclude  themselves 
from  the  world  ;  made  a  boast  of  poverty ;  and  vowed 
absolute  obedience  to  the  rules  of  the  Order,  which  en- 
joined continual  residence  in  the  monastery,  and,  in 
addition  to  the  usual  religious  exercises,  employment  in 
manual  labour,  the  instruction  of  youth,  and  copying 
manuscripts  for  the  libraries. 

The  last  injunction,  applied  at  the  outset  by  St.  Bene- 
dict to  religious  books  only,  was  afterwards  extended  to 
secular  productions.  It  is  remarkable  that  the  founder 
of  what  eventually  became  the  largest,  the  wealthiest, 
the  most  powerful,  and  the  most  learned  of  all  the 
monastic  Orders,  was  himself,  like  the  founder  of  the 
Franciscans  at  a.  later  day,  so  little  of  a  scholar  that 
Gregory  the  Great  paradoxically  desciibed  him  as 
"learnedly  ignorant"  and  "wisely  unlearned."  His 
followers  increased  so  rapidly  after  the  sixth  century  that 
they  must  be  regarded  as  the  main  agents  in  the  spread 
of  Christianity,  civilization,  and  learning  in  the  West. 
In  their  palmy  days,  they  had  as  many  as  thirty-seven 
thousand  monasteries  in  Europe.  Most  of  the  rich 
abbeys  in  England,  and  all  the  cathedral  priories,  except 
Carlisle,  were  Benedictine.  Archbishops  Lanfranc  and 
Anselm,  and  other  distinguished  prelates,  belonged  to  this 
Order.  Dugdale,  in  his  great  work,  '  Monasticon  Angli- 
canum,'  the  iirst  volume  of  which  was  published  in  1655, 
gives  copious  details  of  all  the  foundations.  Four  mas- 
sive  folio  volumes  out  of  seven  are  devoted  to  the  Bene- 
dictines, whose  principal  seats  were  at  Glastonbury, 
Malmesbury,  Whitby,  Evesham,  Tewkesbury,  Croyland, 
St.  Alban's,  Thorney,  St.  Edmund's  Bury,  TynemouL'n, 
and  Great  Malvern.  The  austere  Cistercian.s,  a  reformed 
branch  of  the  former,  and  the  Quakers  of  that  day,  were 
located,  among  other  places,  at  Furness  Abbey,  Tintern, 
Fountains,  Rivaux,  Kirkstall,  and  Netley.  St.  Bernard  of 
Clairvaux  was  a  renowned  member  of  this  Order.  The 
Carthusians,  who  took  their  name  from  La  Grand  Chart- 
reuse, near  Grenoble,  corrupted  into  the  well  known 
Charterhouse,  in  London,  were  also  found  at  Waltham, 


78  RISE  OF  ECCLESIASTICISM.       [chap.  V. 

Walsingham,  Cirencester,  Hexham,  Bolton,  and  New- 
stead.  Dugdale  gives  particulars  of  every  known  Reli- 
gious House  in  England,  of  all  kinds,  existing  or 
extinct ;  amounting  in  all  to  more  than  eighteen  hun- 
dred, including  numerous  subordinate  and  affiliated 
bodies.  Some  escaped  his  vigilant  inquiries.  The 
abbeys  were  great  schools  as  well  as  monasteries,  and 
they  continued  for  a  lengthened  period  to  discharge 
important  educational  functions. 

The  building,  endowment,  and  adorning  of  monasteries 
had  been  carried  on  to  such  an  extent  prior  to  the 
eighth  century  that  no  small  part  of  the  wealth  of 
England  was  spent  in  this  way,  or  lay  buried  in  the 
rich  ornaments,  dresses,  and  utensils  of  the  churches. 
William  of  Malmesbury  says  that  "  the  masses  of  gold 
and  silver  which  Queen  Emma,"  wife  of  yEthelred  and 
of  Cnut,  "  with  a  holy  prodigality  bestowed  upon  the 
monasteries  of  Winchester,  astonished  the  minds  of 
strangers  ;  while  the  splendour  of  the  precious  stones 
dazzled  their  eyes."  The  number  or  the  Seculars,  or 
parochial  clergy,  and  of  the  Regulars,  or  monastic  clergy, 
greatly  increased,  and  they  were  munificently  endowed 
with  landed  property,  jewels,  and  rich  vestments.  By 
frequent  grants  made  from  the  beginning  of  the  tenth 
to  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century,  there  is  reason  to 
believe  the  common  statement,  that  at  the  time  when 
Eadward  the  Confessor  died,  more  than  one-third  of  all 
the  cultivated  land  of  England  was  held  by  the  clergy. 
They  were  exempt  from  taxation,  and  provided  no 
military  service.  It  is  not  surprising  that  first  the 
Danes,  and  then  the  Normans,  were  successful  in  their 
attacks.  Shaven  priests  were  a  sorry  defence  against 
invasion ;  while  the  enormous  wealth  of  churches  and 
mona.steries  promised  an  ample  field  of  plunder  for  these 
bandits.  Sacred  buildings  were  always  the  first  objects 
of  attack  in  their  repeated  forays.  Baeda,  writing  to  his 
friend  Ecgberht,  Archbishop  of  York,  expressed  a  fear  that, 
from  the  increase  of  monks,  soldiers  would  be  lacking  to 
repel  invaders.  Many  monasteries  had  been  built  and 
endowed  since  his  time,  through  the  liberal  gifts  of  kings 
and  nobles,  who  were  exhorted  that  such  offerings  were 
specially  pleasing  to  God,  and  would  atone  for  sins. 


A.D.  597-I042.]  ST.  DUXSTAN.  79 

Rome  perceived  the  advantage  that  the  monastic  sys- 
tem furnished  in  rearing  a  class  of  men,  having  no  family 
or  local  ties,  who  would  be  ready  to  go  anywhere,  and  to 
undertake  any  service  calculated  to  promote  the  scheme 
of  setting  up  Papal  authority  over  all  nations.  Astute- 
ness and  adaptation  have  always  marked  her  policy.  As 
in  the  case  of  the  Mendicant  Friars  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  and,  later,  in  thar  of  the  Jesuits,  so  now  with  the 
monks,  the  assistance  was  welcomed  of  a  body  of  new 
recruits,  with  their  special  characteristics.  It  was  speedily 
resolved  to  enforce  celibacy  upon  the  clergy  throughout 
Christendom.  One  of  the  grounds  of  quarrel  between 
King  Eadwig  and  Archbishop  Dunstan  was  said  to  be  the 
favour  shown  by  the  former  to  the  secular  clergy ; 
whereas  Dunstan  did  his  best  to  establish  rigid  monastic 
rules,  such  as  the  extreme  laxity  of  prevalent  morals 
demanded.  This  renowned  prelate-statesman,  the  pre- 
cursor of  Lanfranc,  Becket,  Wolsey,  and  Laud,  was  born 
in  925,  near  Glastonbury.  He  was  the  chief  adviser  of 
Eadgar ;  the  monarch  around  whose  name  circle  the 
expiring  glories  of  the  Saxon  Kingdoms.  Dunstan  was 
a  man  of  commanding  abilities ;  but  his  memory  has 
suffered  as  much  from  the  injudicious  eulogium  of  friends 
as  from  the  excessive  censure  of  enemies.  Popular 
esteem  canonized  him  immediately  after  his  death,  and 
he  remained  for  nearly  two  centuries  the  favourite 
English  saint,  until  his  renown  was  eclipsed  by  that  of 
Becket.  He  commenced  his  career  as  Abbot  of  Glaston- 
bury, in  Somerset.  Tradition  ascribed  its  origin  to  Joseph 
of  Arimathea.  The  miraculous  thorn  which  was  vulgarly 
believed  to  blossom  on  Christmas  Day,  was  said  to  have 
sprung  from  the  staff  that  aided  his  pilgrimage  from  the 
Holy  Land.  In  957,  Dunstan  was  appointed  Bishop  of 
Worcester.  Two  years  later,  the  See  of  London  was 
conferred  upon  him,  in  addition,  and  in  the  same  year  he 
was  created  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  He  was  only 
sixty-four  when  he  died  ;  but  he  left  his  mark  upon  the 
history  of  his  times.  He  set  himself  to  consolidate  the 
affairs  of  the  kingdom  ;  to  establish  ecclesiastical  order  and 
obedience  ;  to  make  the  church  the  educator  of  the  people, 
and  her  ministers  to  be  true  teachers.  He  framed  numerous 
canons  designed  to  raise  their  character.     He  was  a  man 


8o  RISE  OF  ECCLESIASTICISM.      [chap.  v. 

of  great  energy  and  ability  ;  zealous  and  sincere ;  loving 
to  compose  quarrels  and  to  befriend  the  weak  and  needy. 
Bishop  Stubbs  shows  that  the  common  charge  of  perse- 
cuting the  married  clergy  is  baseless,  ^thelwold,  Bishop 
of  Winchester,  and  Oswald,  Bishop  of  Worcester,  took  the 
most  conspicuous  part  in  this  movement,  which  extolled 
the  single  state  as  the  only  one  worthy  of  the  holiness  of 
the  priestly  office.  Miracles  arid  tales  were  invented,  to 
work  upon  the  fears  and  credulity  of  the  ignorant.  By 
such  means,  within  a  few  years,  forty-eight  monasteries 
were  filled  with  Benedictine  monks. 

The  monastic  ideal  was  lofty  and  grand,  in  its  early 
conception ;  but  this  "  fugitive  and  cloistered  virtue," 
as  Milton  terms  it,  was  impossible  of  attainment  by 
average  men.  In  order  to  succeed,  the  system  required 
a  character  so  rare  and  exalted  as  to  be  heroic  and  saintly. 
Morbid  spiritual  egotism  and  false  standards  of  holiness 
produced  their  inevitable  effects.  Attempts  at  reform 
were  only  in  part  or  for  a  time  successful.  Other  bcfdies 
of  monks  arose,  with  the  avowed  design  of  restoring 
pristine  simplicity  and  purity ;  such  as  the  Carthusians 
and  the  Cistercians,  already  mentioned,  with  the  corre- 
sponding orders  of  Nuns,  and,  at  a  later  period,  the 
Franciscans  and  Dominicans.  All  of  these,  in  their  turn, 
became  corrupted  and  enfeebled  by  prosperity,  like  the 
earlier  Benedictines  and  Augustmes.  In  the  case  of 
these  two  great  bodies,  vows  of  poverty  were  soon  for- 
gotten or  eluded,  and  their  severe  rule  of  life  was 
relaxed.  Narrow  cells  developed  into  stately  cloisters, 
and  hermJts  into  princely  abbots.  Vast  estates  were 
acquired ;  mainly  by  death-bed  bequests  from  the  con- 
science-smitten and  the  superstitious.  The  evil  attained 
such  portentous  dimensions  that  it  had  to  be  dealt  with 
in  the  thirteenth  century  by  the  Statute  of  Mortmain. 
The  names  and  titles  employed  unintentionally  reveal 
the  truth ;  for  there  is  an  unconscious  meaning  that 
often  attaches  to  the  use  of  words.  An  Abbey  was  a 
monastery  of  the  highest  rank,  governed  by  a  Lord 
Abbot,  who  was  usually  a  temporal  as  well  as  a  spiritual 
potentate.  The  heads  of  the  greater  Abbeys  became 
peers  of  the  realm  and  sat  in  Parliament.  A  Priory  was 
a  less  extensive  and  wealthy  community,   and,   in  early 


A.D.  597-1042.]    ABBOTS  AND  PRIORS.  8[ 

times,  was  usually  subordinate  to  an  Abbey ;  though 
many  acquired  vast  territorial  domains,  and  became 
virtually  independent.  The  heads  of  these  great  founda- 
tions rivalled  prelates  and  nobles  in  their  'magnificence, 
and  their  landed  and  other  possessions  enabled  them  to 
sway  an  influence  that  was  often  inimical  to  the  State. 

As  Lecky  very  properly  and  forcibly  argues,  in  his 
'  History  of  European  Morals,'  the  beneficial  influence  of 
the  monastic  system  was,  in  the  nature  of  the  case, 
transitory,  "  Its  subsequent  corruption  was  the  inevit- 
able result  of  its  constitution.  Groups  of  men  or  women 
living  in  enforced  celibacy,  exercising  boundless  spiritual 
influence,  possessing  enormous  wealth,  and  bound  to 
their  respective  Orders  by  artificial  but  stringent  ties, 
were  certain  to  become  venal,  corrupt,  and  debased  when 
the  early  enthusiasm  died  away."  The  original  services 
rendered  by  monasteries  as  centres  of  agriculture,  refuges 
for  travellers,  and  sanctuaries  in  time  of  war,  were  no 
longer  required  when  the  dread  of  invasion  and  when 
social  convulsions  had  ceased.  The  Benedictines,  by 
making  labour  an  essential  element  of  their  rule,  did 
much  to  efface  the  absurd  stigma  affixed  to  it  by  the 
ancient  system  of  slavery.  Yet,  when  industry  had 
passed  out  of  its  initial  stages,  the  monastic  teachings, 
exaggerated  in  scope,  as  to  the  pretended  sanctity  of 
poverty  and  the  evil  of  wealth,  were  opposed  to  the 
true  idea  of  honest  work. 

The  ordinary  mass-priest  of  the  country  village  was 
an  undignified  personage  ;  living  on  his  fees,  and  render- 
ing for  them  perfunctory  service.  His  origin  was  often 
traceable  to  the  semi-servile  class,  and  he  retained  its 
habits,  its  faults,  and  its  vices.  In  the  tenth  century,  it 
was  needful  for  his  ecclesiastical  superiors  to  warn  him 
not  to  be  a  public  spoiler,  or  engage  in  private  feuds, 
or  drink  in  taverns,  or  greedily  introduce  himself  at 
funeral  feasts.  He  was  frequently  unable  to  perform  the 
church  service  with  common  decorum,  because  of  his 
ignorance  and  bad  character.  Missals  and  vestments 
were  lost  or  stolen  ;  improper  vessels  were  used  for  the 
Eucharist ;  sacred  edifices  were  devoted  to  secular  uses, 
or  suffered  to  fall  into  scandalous  decay.  The  Popes,  and 
the  higher  orders  of  clergy  at  Rome,  carried  on  a 
S 


S2  RISE  OF  ECCLESIASTICISM.      [chap.  v. 

lucrative  trade  in  relics ;  of  which  there  seemed  to  be  an 
endless  store.  Kings,  princes,  and  wealthy  prelates  bought 
pieces  of  what  was  alleged  to  be  the  true  cross,  of  which 
there  must  haVe  been  enough  to  build  a  large  house  ;  or 
legs  and  arms  of  apostles  and  saints,  sufficient  to  repre- 
sent a  battlefield.  When  Angelnoth,  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  was  at  Rome  in  102 1,  he  bought  what  was 
said  to  be  an  arm  of  St.  Augustine,  for  six  thousand 
pounds'  weight  of  silver  and  sixty  pounds'  weight  of 
gold.  Such  relics  were  prized  as  the  greatest  treasures 
in  churches  and  monasteries,  were  placed  in  caskets  of 
gold  adorned  with  gems,  and  were  shown  with  much 
pomp  on  rare  occasions  for  the  adoration  of  the  faithful. 
Relics  were  sometimes  abstracted  or  taken  by  force  from 
small  monasteries  by  those  of  greater  power  and  wealth, 
and  there  was  a  brisk  trade  in  such  articles  of  ecclesiastical 
furniture.  With  an  increasing  demand  there  was  a  prompt 
supply.  A  system  of  wholesale  manufacture  of  relics  was 
carried  on  for  centuries,  until  the  impudent  frauds  col- 
lapsed in  the  time  of  Henry  VIII.  Still  further  to  increase 
the  wonder  of  the  populace,  and  to  stimulate  generous 
gifts,  numerous  tales  were  invented  of  miracles  and  cures 
alleged  to  have  been  wrought  by  relics.  The  Chronicles 
contain  specimens  of  the  foolish  things  taught  and  credu- 
lously accepted.  Those  who  should  have  been  guides 
and  leaders,  were  addicted  to  gross  superstitions,  which 
they  instilled  into  others  and  enforced  by  pretended 
miracles.  William  of  Malmesbury  relates  one  as  a  fact, 
professing  to  be  in  the  words  of  a  person  on  whom  it 
was  said  to  have  been  wrought,  in  10 12,  when  thirty- 
three  young  men  and  women  continued  dancing  day  and 
night  for  a  year,  as  a  punishment  for  their  impiety  in  a 
churchyard  ;  until  the  spell  was  dissolved  by  a  bishop. 

Originally,  the  dioceses  were  conterminous  with  the 
jurisdiction  of  some  local  ruler,  or  titular  king,  and  the 
episcopal  See  was  fixed  in  the  principal  city.  After  the 
partial  settlement  under  Archbishop  Theodore,  towards 
the  end  of  the  seventh  century,  and  the  temporary  arrange- 
ment, in  787,  in  Mercia,  by  the  ephemeral  archbishopric 
of  Lichfield,  nothing  was  done  in  this  way  for  nearly  two 
hundred  years.  Before  the  close  of  the  tenth  century 
tiie  dioceses  had  undergone  various  extensions  and  modi- 


A.D.  597-I042.]   EPISCOPAL  DIOCESES.  83 

fications  ;  but  the  limits  were,  in  most  cases,  different  from 
those  subsequently  fixed  by  William  I.,  under  the  advice 
of  Lanfranc.  Thus  the  bishopric  of  Selsey — the  site  of 
which  has  long  been  engulphed  by  encroachments  of  the 
ocean — consisted  mainly  of  the  district  now  allotted  to 
Chichester.  Another  diocese  that  has  vanished  is  Sher- 
borne, comprising  parts  of  Dorset  and  Wilts.  The  chief 
relics  of  ancient  ecclesiastical  renown  in  that  district  are 
to  be  seen  in  the  famous  Minsters  at  Sherborne  and 
Wimborne  ;  portions  of  the  monasteries  to  which  such 
edifices  always  belonged.  Ramsbury  was  the  seat  of  a 
bishopric  that  embraced  parts  of  the  present  geographical 
limits  of  the  See  of  Salisbury.  Dorchester  was  an 
immense  diocese,  extending  from  a  little  South  of  the 
decayed  town  of  that  name,  in  Oxfordshire,  to  the 
Humber,  and  it  included  the  whole  of  the  present 
Midland  Counties.  On  the  East  it  was  joined  by  the 
See  of  Elmham,  which  comprised  the  whole  of  East 
Anglia  down  to  the  river  Stour.  Lichfield,  continued  as 
a  bishopric,  was  another  vast  diocese,  partly  to  the  West 
of  Dorchester,  ranging  from  what  is  now  known  as 
Warwickshire  to  the  modern  Lancashire.  Partly  between 
these  two  great  bishoprics,  and  continuing  on  to  that  of 
Durham,  with  a  territory  stretching  from  sea  to  sea,  was 
the  Northern  archdiocese  of  York,  which,  even  in  those 
early  times,  had  com.menced  an  interminable  dispute 
with  Canterbury  as  to  precedence  and  prerogatives.  \\\ 
addition  to  these  nine,  there  were  the  Sees  of  London, 
Winchester,  Rochester,  Wells,  Exeter,  Worcester,  and 
Hereford.  It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  the 
population  in  the  Midland  district,  where  vast  forests 
abounded,  and  in  the  North,  where  moor  and  fen  land 
prevailed,  was  very  sparse.  At  that  time,  and  for  a  long 
subsequent  period,  the  chief  centres  were  in  Kent,  in  the 
Southern  districts,  in  East  Anglia,  and  around  London. 

In  process  of  time,  the  appointment  of  bishops  and 
abbots  rested  with  the  monarch  and  the  Witan  ;  though 
there  are  faint  traces  of  a  capitular  nomination.  The 
form  always  was  that  the  king  granted  the  bishopric  or 
abbacy  to  a  certain  person.  The  writ,  issued  under  seal, 
confirmed  the  rights  and  possessions  as  fully  as  they  wore 
held  by  the  last  occupant.     The  bishop  also  received  his 


84  RISE  OF  ECCLESTASTICISM.       [chap.  v. 

ring  and  pastoral  staff  from  the  king.  This  mode  of 
investiture  gave  rise  to  prolonged  and  angry  disputes  with 
Rome.  Much  obscurity  rests  over  the  methods  by  which 
the  clergy  came  to  wield  such  great  influence  in  secular 
affairs.  The  prelates,  as  has  been  explained,  exercised  a 
share  of  jurisdiction  in  the  local  courts,  and  they  gradually 
began  to  employ  spiritual  weapons  in  cases  against 
morality.  Offences  by  the  clergy  in  matters  of  discipline 
were  dealt  with  by  the  diocesan,  who  subsequently 
demanded  that  clerical  offences,  of  every  kind,  should  be 
withdrawn  from  the  secular  courts.  Next,  in  process  of 
time,  an  order  of  prelate-statesmen  arose,  often  involving 
a  conflict  of  choice  between  their  duties  as  bishops  and 
those  appertaining  to  the  public  administrator.  Under 
the  later  Saxon  kings,  the  occupant  of  the  See  of  Canter- 
bury figures  as  a  secular  potentate  rather  than  as  a 
spiritual  head.  Stigand,  the  last  of  the  native  primates, 
held,  in  addition,  the  richest  See  in  England  ;  the  vice 
of  plurality  of  benefices  having  become  too  common. 
He  was  also  the  adherent  of  a  schismatic  pontiff,  and  the 
head  of  a  patriotic  but  unspiritual  organization. 

After  the  death  of  Alfred,  in  901,  there  followed,  until 
the  Danish  Conquest  in  1016,  more  than  a  hundred 
years  of  fitful  trouble  and  of  frequent  war.  The 
Chronicles  are  obscure ;  and,  sometimes,  contradictory. 
Through  the  gloom  can  be  caught  lurid  glimpses  of 
battles,  murders,  incendiarism,  barbarity,  and  crime.  It 
is  a  repetition  of  the  old  revolting  story ;  but  the 
particulars  need  not  be  given.  Have  they  not  been 
copiously  set  forth  in  the  pages  of  Freeman,  with  an 
ingenious  use  of  scanty  materials,  eked  out  by  speculation 
and  hypothesis  ?  His  patient  labour  and  literary  ability 
must  be  recognised,  whatever  may  be  thought  of  the 
actual  results  and  of  some  of  the  theories  advanced. 
Some  of  his  statements,  where  not  based  upon  indubitable 
historical  evidence,  but  upon  a  clever  exercise  of  the 
imagination,  are  advanced  with  an  air  of  authority  that 
is  prone  to  mislead  the  unwary  ;  because  so  plausible  and 
dogmatic. 

By  the  voice  of  the  Witan,  Eadward,  second  surviving 
son   of  Alfred,  succeeded   to   the   throne.     ^-Elfred  had 


A.D.  597-1042.]  J£THELSTAN.  85 

rescued  large  portions  of  the  country  from  the  wild 
hordes  of  Danes,  and  laid  a  broad  and  sure  foundation 
on  which  others  might  build.  His  son  wrested  from 
them  other  portions  of  territory  in  the  North  and  East 
of  England,  but  did  little  towards  perfecting  measures 
for  domestic  comfort,  knowledge,  and  prosperity,  such  as 
his  father  had  begun.  His  reign  of  twenty-four  years 
was  a  long  series  of  battles,  which  won  for  him  great 
renown,  but  little  else.  He  died  in  925,  at  Faringdon, 
in  Berkshire,  and  was  buried  in  the  new  Minster  at 
^Vinchester.  His  son,  ^thelstan,  was  crowned  at 
Kingston-on-Thames  by  .^thelm.  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury ;  the  first  recorded  instance  of  a  coronation  in 
England.  He  took  Northumbria  from  the  Danes,  and 
when  fresh  bands  came  over,  in  937,  in  six  hundred  and 
fifty  ships,  he  gathered  all  his  forces  and  defeated  them 
in  the  celebrated  battle  of  Brunanburh.  The  precise 
locality  is  unknown,  though  the  weight  of  evidence  is 
in  favour  of  North  Lincolnshire.  This  contest  was 
decisive  for  a  short  time.  It  established  his  power  over 
all  England,  of  which  he  was,  in  a  strict  sense,  the  first 
sole  monarch.  Before  this,  the  name  of  England  had 
almost  superseded  other  names,  and  the  fusion  of  races 
had  begun.  The  Chronicler,  ^thelweard,  who  was 
descended  from  Alfred's  brother,  yEthelred,  styles  his 
own  countrymen  in  Wessex,  West  Angles.  The  South 
and  East  Saxons  he  calls  South  and  East  Angles.  The 
phrase  Anglo-Saxon,  is  nothing  more  than  a  book-word, 
employed  simply  for  convenience  and  to  spare  tautology. 
Wealth  was  increasing ;  as  is  manifest  from  the  numerous 
laws  respecting  property  and  trade,  from  the  establish- 
ment of  recognised  mints  in  privileged  cities,  and  from 
the  vast  bribes  paid  to  the  Danes. 

^thelstan  died  in  940;  regretted  by  his  subjects,  and 
admired  by  surrounding  nations  ;  lor  his  fame  had  widely 
spread.  Eadward,  his  brother,  reigned  only  six  years  ; 
being  murdered  by  an  outlaw  who  had  returned  from 
banishment.  During  that  time,  he,  too,  had  to  fight  the 
Danes,  who  again  tried  to  seize  the  Midland  and  Northern 
counties.  Eadred,  another  brother,  was  elected  by  the 
Witan  ;  to  the  exclusion  of  his  young  nephews;  a  course 
often  pursued,  for  personal   reasons,  or  those  of  policy. 


86  RISE  OF  ECCLESIASTICISM.        [chap.  v. 

This  was  the  first  instance  where  Briton,  Dane,  and 
Englishman  took  common  part  in  a  C^reat  National 
Council.  Eadred  made  a  more  effectual  conquest  of 
Northumbria  than  even  ./Ethelstan  had  done.  It  never 
regained  independence,  or  tried  to  assert  separate 
authority.  For  nearly  fifty  years,  no  pirate  fleet  suc- 
ceeded in  landing  upon  the  coast.  Eadred  died  in  955, 
and  was  followed  by  his  nephew  Eadwig,  the  Fair.  Such 
designations  were  common,  and  persons  were  distinguished 
as  the  Long,  the  Black,  or  the  Good.  Surnames  or 
family  names  were  not  used  until  the  time  of  Eadward 
the  Confessor.  They  often  originated  in  nicknames ;  or 
were  the  names  of  places  or  trades  given  to  denote  par- 
ticular persons. 

Eadwig  was  so  unfortunate  as  to  quarrel  with  Dunstan. 
Of  the  causes  or  the  merits  of  the  dispute  nothing  is 
known  with  certitude,  although  conjectures  abound  in 
later  writers.  The  character  of  the  King  is  painted  in 
the  blackest  colours  by  the  monks,  but  they  assign  no 
proofs,  and  their  representations  must  always  be  accepted 
with  caution.  Generally  speaking,  their  opinions  and 
criticisms  are  based  upon  the  extent  of  the  gifts  made  to 
the  Church,  or  the  unquestioning  obedience  to  priestly 
dictation.  They  all  heartily  concur  in  abusing  Eadwig ; 
who  died  in  959 ;  being  only  nineteen  years  of  age.  He 
was  succeeded  by  his  brother  Eadgar,  a  boy  of  sixteen  ; 
styled  the  Peaceable,  from  the  singular  circumstance  of 
no  war  having  occurred  during  his  reign  of  sixteen  years. 
Great  praise  is  bestowed  on  him  by  the  Chroniclers,  for 
what  they  term  his  piety  and  devotion,  but  they  record 
enough  to  show  that  he  was  coarse,  low,  and  vicious.  As, 
however,  he  upheld  priestly  power,  aided  Dunstan  in 
his  schemes  of  clerical  reform,  and  made  large  donations 
to  the  Church,  he  is  lauded  as  a  pattern  of  goodness. 
His  son,  Eadward,  after  a  tenure  of  only  four  years,  was 
stabbed  by  his  step-mother,  in  order  that  her  own  son, 
^thelred  the  Second,  a  child  of  ten  years  of  age,  might 
become  King.  The  epithet  of  the  Unready  is  attached 
to  him  ;  not  in  the  sense  of  being  dilatory  or  unprepared, 
but  of  lacking  "  rede,"  or  counsel.  He  was  not  able  to 
keep  the  Danish  part  of  his  subjects  in  order,  and  they 
invited  other  Northmen  to  come  over  and  help  them  to 


A.D.  597-1042.]  THE  DANEGELD.  87 

re-assert  their  independence.  Various  attacks  were  made, 
and  ^thelred,  after  a  drawn  battle  near  Maldon,  in  991, 
instead  of  assembling  fresh  troops  and  driving  the  Danes 
back,  gave  them  a  bribe  of  ten  thousand  pounds'  weight 
of  silver  to  depart. 

As  might  have  been  foreseen,  this  timidity  and  these 
bribes  on  the  part  of  the  islanders  only  made  the  Danes 
bolder  and  more  rapacious.  In  the  decaying  days  af  the 
Roman  Empire,  the  hordes  of  barbarians  were  repeatedly 
bought  off;  only  to  embolden  them  to  make  further 
irruptions  and  larger  demands.  A  similar  result  was 
witnessed  in  England.  Other  bands  of  sea-rovers  arrived 
in  993,  imder  two  renowned  freebooters ;  Swegen  of 
Denmark,  and  Olaf  of  Norway.  They  sailed  up  the 
Humber,  robbed  the  country,  and  marched  into  North- 
umbria,  where  the  people  being  mostly  of  Danish 
descent,  welcomed  them.  In  the  following  Spring  they 
sailed  up  the  Thames ;  but  the  citizens  of  London, 
always  bold  and  brave  in  defence  of  their  rights  and  their 
wealth,  repulsed  them.  In  revenge,  they  wasted  the 
country  round  with  fire  and  sword.  Again  yEthelred 
bribed  them  to  leave,  with  sixteen  thousand  pounds  of 
silver;  but,  in  977,  and  in  the  two  following  years,  fresh 
hordes  came  over  and  committed  dreadful  havoc  in  Kent 
and  in  the  South-West.  They  only  ceased  for  a  short 
time  on  the  payment  of  twenty-four  thousand  pounds  of 
silver.  Other  bands  had  been  hired  by  the  English  to 
fight  against  the  Danes ;  for  these  reckless  sea-rovers, 
like  mercenary  troops  in  every  age,  were  always  ready  to 
sell  themselves  and  to  destroy  one  another.  The  cost  of 
this,  with  the  heavy  and  repeated  bribes,  led  to  the 
imposition  of  a  tax,  first  of  one  shilling,  and  then  of  seven 
shillings,  on  every  hide  of  land  ;  or  about  one  hundred 
and  twenty  acres.  This  tax  of  the  Danegeld  continued 
to  be  levied  long  after  the  original  cause  had  ceased.  In 
the  time  of  Cnut,  himself  a  Dane,  it  realised  the  then 
vast  sum  of  eighty-two  thousand  pounds  of  silver ;  equal 
to  a  quarter  of  a  million  in  modern  money  in  the  value  o( 
the  silver  alone,  apart  from  what  it  could  then  purchase. 
This  was  the  initial  form  of  the  land-tax,  which  continues 
until  the  present  day. 

In  1002,  there  was  a  general  massacre  of  the  Danes  in 


88  RISE  OF  ECCLESIASTICISM.      [chap.  v. 

the  Southern  part  of  the  island  ;  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren falling  victims  to  the  revenge  of  the  people  for  pro- 
longed acts  of  cruelty  and  extortion.  It  does  not  appear 
to  have  extended  to  the  Danelagh,  where  the  settled 
Northmen  were  too  numerous  and  too  strong.  Later 
versions  were  embellished  with  circumstantial  additions, 
more  or  less  conjectural.  No  sooner  did  news  of  this 
reach  Swegen,  whose  sister  was  one  of  the  victims,  than 
he  vowed  to  take  vengeance.  The  vow  was  kept  with 
barbarous  brutality  until  his  death  twelve  years  after- 
wards. He  gathered  a  large  fleet,  and  filled  it  with  bold 
men,  ready  for  any  acts  of  violence  and  cruelty  in  return 
for  ample  plunder.  He  landed  near  Exeter,  and  the 
city  was  yielded  up  by  treachery.  After  plundering  it, 
and  breaking  down  the  walls,  he  marched  through 
Devon,  Somerset,  and  Wilts ;  murdering,  robbing,  and 
burning  on  all  sides.  His  track  was  marked,  as  usual, 
with  charred  houses,  slaughtered  and  mutilated  men,  and 
ravished  women,  and  he  sailed  away  with  immense 
booty.  The  next  year  he  invaded  Norfolk,  and  took  and 
sacked  Norwich,  with  nearly  all  the  towns  in  East 
Anglia.  The  country  was  overrun  for  four  years. 
Crops  could  not  be  sown,  and  famine  appeared.  Towns 
and  villages  were  robbed,  and  then  burned.  All  who 
fell  into  the  hands  of  these  savages  met  with  insult,  out- 
rage, and  torture  before  they  were  killed.  Despair  urged 
the  inhabitants  sometimes  to  rise  against  detached  bodies 
of  the  invaders  ;  but  these  usually  managed  to  repel  all 
attacks  and  to  rout  with  dreadful  slaughter  any  army  sent 
against  them. 

yElphege,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  was  seized  when 
that  city  was  taken.  Refusing  to  pay  a  ransom,  he  was 
barbarously  murdered.  Once  more,  in  1007,  Swegen 
consented  to  leave,  for  a  payment  of  thirty-six  thousand 
pounds  of  silver ;  the  amount  of  the  bribe  thus  con- 
tinually increasing  in  a  kind  of  arithmetical  progression. 
In  the  following  year,  the  Witan  enacted  that  every 
owner  of  three  hundred  hides  of  land  should  furnish  a 
ship  for  the  defence  of  the  coasts,  and  the  owner  of 
every  eight  hides  was  to  provide  a  helmet  and  breast- 
plate. By  this  means  a  fleet  of  nearly  eight  hundred 
small   vessels   was   raised ;    which   proves   that    England 


A.D.  597-I042.]   THURKILVS  INVASION.  89 

must  have  made  great  advances  in  wealth,  notwithstand 
ing  all  the  recent  losses  and  misery.  These  ships  were 
galleys  with  one  mast,  and  from  twenty  to  one  hundred  tons 
burden.  The  fleet  might  have  done  good  service,  but  for 
treachery  and  internal  disputes.  The  Danes  again  came 
over,  in  loio,  under  Thurkill,  and  for  nearly  three  years 
committed  frightful  havoc.  Nothing  is  read  of  in  the 
Chronicles  but  the  sacking  and  burning  of  towns,  the 
destruction  of  everything  that  could  not  be  carried  away, 
the  ravaging  of  monasteries  and  nunneries,  and  whole- 
sale murders  ;  with  savage  horrors  that  weary  and  sadden 
the  reader.  After  desolating  extensive  districts,  Thurkill 
granted  peace  to  .^thelred  for  forty-eight  thousand 
pounds  of  silver.  Swegen,  who  was  Thurkill's  lord, 
pretended  to  be  angry  at  this  truce,  and  declared  that  he 
would  at  once  conquer  England.  He  sailed  with  a  large 
fleet  in  10 13,  and  entered  the  Humber.  The  men  of  the 
Danelagh  sided  with  him,  and  he  was  owned  as  King  of 
the  country  North  of  Watling-Street.  He  then  marched 
Southwards ;  spreading  murder,  fire,  and  pillage  around. 
The  chief  towns  yielded ;  but  once  more  the  stout- 
hearted citizens  of  London  successfully  resisted. 

yEthelred  had  taken  refuge  in  Normandy,  with  his 
wife's  brother,  Duke  Richard;  but  in  February,  1014, 
Swegen  suddenly  died  at  Gainsborough,  just  as  he  was 
about  to  be  crowned,  and  thus  found  a  Scandinavian 
empire  of  which  England  should  be  the  seat.  The 
Danes  proclaimed  his  son  Cnut ;  but  the  English  nobles 
and  prelates  asked  ^^thelred  to  return,  if  he  would 
undertake  to  rule  more  righteously.  He  came  back ; 
leaving  his  wife  in  the  Norman  Court,  where  his  two 
younger  sons  were  brought  up.  Cnut  was  called  away 
to  settle  afiairs  in  Denmark  ;  but  England  was  too  rich 
a  prize  to  be  neglected.  The  next  year  he  brought  over 
fresh  troops  and  harried  the  South-VVest  coast,  ^thel- 
red  was  in  failing  health,  and  the  conduct  of  affairs  rested 
with  his  son  Eadmund,  named  Ironside,  on  account  of 
his  valour  and  strength.  He  was  declared  King  on  the 
death  of  his  father,  April  23,  10 16,  and  entered  on  a 
short  and  stormy  reign  of  not  quite  seven  months.  He 
withdrew  into  Wessex,  the  men  of  which  district 
gathered   round  him,   and  six  contests  occurred    during 


90  RISE  OF  ECCLESIASTICISM.      [chap.  V. 

that  Summer.  At  Sherstone,  in  Wiltshire,  a  fierce 
battle  was  fought  between  his  forces  and  those  of  Cnut. 
Neither  won  the  day ;  but  Cnut  lost  so  many  men,  and 
had  such  respect  for  Eadmund's  military  talent,  that  he 
withdrew  towards  London,  which  some  of  his  troops 
were  then  besieging.  Eadmund  followed,  and  forced 
three  other  battles ;  the  last  being  a  famous  fight  at 
Assandun,  in  Essex.  Some  of  the  nobles  and  prelates 
intervened,  and  proposed  an  arrangement,  which  was 
agreed  to.  Cnut  was  to  reign  over  the  Northern  portion 
of  the  country,  and  Eadmund  over  the  Southern,  as  in 
the  time  of  Alfred.  This  partition  lasted  only  two 
months ;  being  ended  by  Eadmund's  death ;  although 
when  and  how  this  took  place  is  not  known.  His 
renown  was  long  the  theme  of  popular  songs  and  tales. 
Under  happier  circumstances,  and  at  an  earlier  period, 
he  might  have  stemmed  this  fresh  tide  of  invasion. 

In  this  way  what  is  commonly  termed  the  Anglo- 
Saxon,  or  original  English  rule  in  England,  came  to  an 
end.  Though  it  was  restored  for  a  short  time,  its  power 
and  glory  had  departed.  A  way  had  been  prepared  for 
the  successful  attacks  of  the  Danes,  by  the  vast  increase 
of  the  monks,  and  the  consequent  weakening  of  the 
defensive  power  of  the  country.  Its  nobles  were  quarrel- 
ling among  themselves,  and  some  of  them  were  doubly- 
dyed  traitors,  and  helped  the  Danes.  The  latter  were 
strong,  brave,  and  disciplined.  The  English,  for  the 
most  part,  had  become  enervated  and  spiritless.  There 
was  need  for  the  infusion  of  a  robust  and  vigorous  strain 
of  the  original  Saxon  race  :  possessed  of  a  spirit  of  enter- 
prise that  amounted  to  daring,  with  a  passionate  ardour 
for  liberty,  inured  to  hardship,  and  thirsting  for 
adventure.  The  Englishman  had  been  secluded  and 
isolated  from  other  peoples.  His  attachments  were 
strong,  but  they  resembled  the  local  hold  of  the  limpet 
to  its  native  rock.  His  own  soil,  his  own  parish,  his  own 
immediate  surroundings,  sufficed  to  gratify  his  narrow 
ambition.  The  national  history  at  this  period  is  a  record 
of  internecine  strife ;  of  feebleness,  incapacity,  and  indo- 
lence ;  with  consequent  decay.  "  Pot-bellied  equa- 
nimity," according  to  Carlyle,  was  the  bane  of  the 
Saxon.     To  this  must  be  attributed  the  retrograde  coursfe 


A.D.  597-1042.]  CNUT.  91 

of  the  people,  and  the  way  in  which  they  succumbed  ; 
first  to  the  Northmen,  and  then  to  the  Normans.  But  it 
was  not  England  that  became  Scandinavian.  On  the 
contrary,  as  with  the  Norman  infusion  before  the  end  of 
the  same  century,  the  conquerors  were  ultimately 
absorbed  by  the  conquered.  The  qualities  of  each 
bra'  ch  of  the  same  original  stock  were  transfused. 

Cnut  (b.  995,  r.  1017-1035)  had  little  trouble  in 
securing  to  himself,  by  the  voice  of  the  Witan,  the  sole 
rule  on  the  death  of  Eadmund  Ironside.  The  English 
nobles  in  the  Southern  and  Western  districts  had 
suffered  too  much  in  recent  conflicts  to  wish  for  their 
continuance.  Eadmund's  children  were  too  young  to 
be  chosen  as  leaders.  Emma,  the  widow  of  yEthelred, 
was  still  in  Normandy  with  her  two  sons.  Cnut  pro- 
posed to  marry  her,  though  ten  years  younger  than  her- 
self, and  the  offer  was  accepted  by  her  brother,  the 
Norman  Duke.  Thus  Cnut  did  not  really  owe  the 
crown  to  conquest,  though  his  skill  and  prowess  con- 
tributed to  the  result,  but  to  election ;  recognised  as 
the  supreme  right  of  the  Witan.  Hitherto,  they  had 
usually  done  so  within  the  limits  of  the  reigning  family ; 
but  now  that  family  was  disregarded  and  set  aside  alto- 
gether. Cnut  sent  away  the  Danish  chiefs  and  their 
followers  who  had  aided  his  invasion;  making  them 
costly  gifts.  He  was  himself  superior  to  the  rude  pirates 
who  had  scoured  sea  and  land  for  more  than  two  cen- 
turies. There  was  in  him,  though  under  strong  personal 
control,  something  of  the  barbaric  fierceness  of  his  race ; 
yet  he  became  a  most  sagacious  and  beneficent  monarch. 
He  was  called  by  different  names  ;  as  the  Brave,  for  his 
personal  valour ;  the  Rich,  for  his  liberality,  especially  to 
the  Church ;  and  the  Great,  because  of  his  wise  and 
successful  rule.  If  his  character  and  abilities  had  been 
possessed  by  his  successors,  the  dynasty  which  he  founded 
might  have  developed,  according  to  his  father's  plan, 
into  a  great  Scandinavian  kingdom ;  for  his  sway  was 
recognised  by  the  Danes,  the  Norwegians,  and  most  of 
the  Swedes. 

Affairs  in  England  had  become  so  far  settled  by  the 
year  1019  that  he  was  able  to  leave  the  country  and 
spend  the  Vv'inter  in  Denmark,  where  his  presence  was 


92  RISE  OF  ECCLESIASTICISM.      [chap.  v. 

needed  to  quell  disturbances.  He  paid  other  visits  to  his 
patrimonial  domains  in  later  years,  and  in  1028  carried 
out  his  design  of  joining  thereto  Sweden  and  Norway. 
He  did  his  best  to  blend  the  peoples  over  whom  he  ruled, 
and  dealt  out  even  justice  to  all.  He  sought  by  wise 
measures  to  remedy  the  distracted  state  of  England,  and 
he  initiated  a  long  period  of  peace  ;  broken  only  by  the 
Norman  inroad  and  the  disorders  under  Stephen.  In  a 
Witan  held  in  Oxford,  in  1025,  he  persuaded  the  English 
and  Danish  thanes  to  forgive  each  other  their  old 
grudges,  and  to  pledge  mutual  amity.  A  code  of  laws 
was  framed  out  of  those  already  existing,  with  such 
additions  as  were  requisite.  This  code  contains  the 
earliest  known  enactment  against  Purveyance,  and  the 
earliest  Forest  Law,  which  the  Normans  afterwards 
developed  so  ruthlessly.  He  did  his  utmost  to  promote 
an  equitable  administration.  On  one  occasion,  having 
slain  a  soldier  in  a  rage,  he  is  said  to  have  fined  himself 
nine  times  the  sum  at  which  such  an  act  was  then 
punishable.  According  to  a  popular  tale,  he  reproved 
his  courtiers  for  their  fulsome  praise  of  his  greatness,  by 
reminding  them  that  the  advancing  waves,  which  com- 
pelled his  seat  to  be  removed  on  the  shore,  would  not 
obey  his  bidding.  This  story,  however,  first  appears  in 
the  Chronicle  of  Henry  of  Huntingdon  in  the  following 
century. 

Cnut  died  at  Shaftesbury,  in  1035,  and  was  buried  at 
Winchester.  By  the  arrangement  made  on  his  marriage 
with  Emma,  their  son,  Harthacnut,  should  have  suc- 
ceeded ;  but  he  was  in  Denmark  at  the  time.  The 
English  portion  of  the  people  were  in  his  favour;  but 
the  Danish  portion  wished  to  have  Harold  —  styled 
Harefoot,  for  his  fleetness  in  running — a  son  of  Cnut  by 
a  former  wife.  In  a  Witan  held  at  Oxford,  it  was  again 
agreed  to  divide  the  country ;  but  Harold  contrived  to 
secure  the  whole,  and  held  it  for  four  years,  when  he 
died.  He  was  followed  by  his  half-brother,  Harthacnut ; 
so  called  from  his  strength  and  vigour.  His  reign  of 
two  years  was  marked  by  tyranny,  violence,  and  revelry. 
He  cared  only  for  pleasure ;  particularly  for  eating  and 
drinking ;  his  capacity  for  which  was  gigantic,  even  in 
that  age.     Such  a  course  of  life  proved  too  much,  and 


A.D.  597-1042.]  HARTHACNUT.  93 

he  died  in  1042.  With  him,  the  Danish  rule  came  to 
an  end.  Eadward,  son  of  y3!^thelred  and  Emma,  and 
half-brother  to  Harthacnut,  had  been  sent  for  by  him 
from  Normandy,  and  the  eyes  of  the  people  turned  to 
him  as  the  future  monarch.  The  possessions  which 
Swegen  and  Cnut  had  gained  in  Denmark  were  lost  to 
their  descendants.  Magnus,  son  of  Olaf,  from  whom 
Cnut  had  wrested  Norway,  not  only  regained  that 
country  from  Cnut's  son,  but  took  Denmark  from  him. 
He  is  heard  of  no  more  in  connection  with  England. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

A   FINAL   STRUGGLE   OF   RACES. 
A.D.   IO42-I066. 

Eadward  the  Confessor  (b.  1004,  r.  1042-1066)  was  so 
styled  on  his  canonization,  about  a  century  after  his 
death,  by  Pope  Alexander  HI.  Like  his  father,  ^fLthelred, 
he  was  feeble  of  purpose  and  incapable  of  ruling.  His 
private  character  was  blameless,  if  insipid.  Not  that 
the  extravagant  praises  of  his  monkish  biographers  are 
to  be  accepted  without  liberal  deductions  and  qualifica- 
tions. They  depict  him  as  a  prodigy  of  virtue,  and 
claim  for  him  impossible  saintliness.  According  to  their 
perverted  notions,  bodily  penance,  many  prayers,  pil- 
grimages, fasting,  and,  in  particular,  costly  presents  to 
the  Church,  were  the  sure  if  not  the  sole  tests  of  piety. 
So  far  as  can  now  be  judged,  Eadward  was  more  of  a 
monk  than  a  monarch.  The  respectable  monotony  of 
his  character  was  unbroken.  He  was  fond  of  being 
alone  ;  weak  and  undecided  ;  usually  kind  in  disposition, 
with  occasional  outbursts  of  passion  and  injustice  ;  making 
no  grave  mistakes,  but  showing  no  energy  or  capacity ;  a 
puppet  in  the  hands  of  others,  especially  of  his  Norman 
favourites  ;  a  good,  well-meaning,  nerveless,  incompetent 
man.  In  his  character  there  was  nothing  regal,  and  his 
proper  sphere  would  have  been  at  the  head  of  an  abbey. 
He  had  spent  twenty-nine  years  in  Normandy,  and  had 


94  CONTEST  OF  RACES.  [chap.  vi. 

adopted  the  speech,  manners,  dress,  and  opinions  of  that 
people.  Crowds  of  them  came  over  to  his  Court.  He 
welcomed  them,  and  gave  them  offices  and  presents ;  to 
the  anger  of  his  English  subjects.  The  great  and 
wealthy  Sees  of  Canterbury,  London,  and  Dorchester 
were  thus  filled.  Robert,  the  Norman  Abbot  of  Jumieges, 
an  aspiring,  intriguing,  domineering  cleric,  was  appointed 
Bishop  of  London,  and  then  was  made  primate.  This 
alien,  who  could  not  speak  a  word  of  English,  swayed 
the  feeble-minded  King  at  will.  Frequent  quarrels  broke 
out  between  the  natives  and  the  grasping  foreigners ; 
sometimes  ending  in  violence  and  bloodshed.  Thus,  in 
1048,  and  again  in  105 1,  Eustache,  Count  of  Boulogne, 
passing  through  Dovei  on  his  way  to  visit  Eadward, 
whose  sister  he  had  married,  attacked  and  killed  several 
of  the  townspeople,  and  wounded  many  more,  because 
they  would  not  allow  his  soldiers  to  take  up  free  quarters. 
This  was  the  custom  of  the  brutal,  mercenary  troops  on 
the  Continent ;  but  it  was  not  so  in  England,  and  was 
expressly  forbidden  in  the  borough  charters.  The 
people  of  Dover  rose  in  arms  on  both  occasions,  after 
some  of  their  number  had  been  killed,  retaliated  011 
several  of  the  foreigners,  and  made  the  rest  fiee. 

Authenticated  incidents  such  as  these  mark  the  differ- 
ence in  character  and  temper  between  the  English  people, 
with  their  Teutonic  traditions  of  freedom,  dear  to  them 
as  the  air  they  breathed,  and  the  Norman  and  other 
soldiers  of  fortune  from  the  Continent,  whose  sole 
standard  of  right  was  might,  and  who  were  accustomed 
to  do  as  they  chose  and  to  take  anything  they  fancied. 
They  despised  the  English,  with  a  pride  whose  insolence 
was  equalled  only  by  its  ignorance.  The  protection 
extended  to  all  classes  by  the  law,  and  especially  the 
rights  conceded  to  the  thrall  or  slave ;  the  ancient 
customs  and  traditions  which  had  come  to  possess  the 
force  of  law ;  even  the  speech  of  England,  with  the 
industrious  habits  of  its  people  and  their  social  usages, 
were  regarded  with  contempt  by  these  swaggering,  mailed 
freebooters.  All  who  were  not  Normans  were  scorned 
as  inferior,  degraded  and  barbarous.  The  spirit  of 
Continental  feudalism  was  at  variance  with  insular  free- 
dom.    The  very  modes  of  warfare  differed.     The  English, 


A.D.  1042-1066.]         THE  NORMANS.  95 

like  their  ancient  Northern  foes,  were  accustomed  to 
rely  upon  personal  strength  and  courage.  A  trusty 
weapon,  wielded  by  a  stout  arm,  with  the  dogged 
resistance  furnished  by  a  tried  shield,  decided  the  fray, 
foot  to  foot,  and  inch  by  inch.  The  Norman  relied 
mainly  upon  his  horse ;  which  could  charge  down  upon 
the  dense  ranks  of  foot-soldiers,  and  could  carry  him  off 
if  the  worst  were  threatened.  Thus  there  was  an 
essential  antagonism  between  the  two  peoples.  The 
Norman  looked  with  surprise  and  resentment  on  what 
he  regarded  as  the  insolent  assertion  of  pretended  rights 
on  the  part  of  such  an  inferior  order  of  beings  as  the 
burghers  of  a  town  like  Dover,  or  of  the  English 
generally,  who  claimed  the  protection  of  ancient  fran- 
chises, and  who  esteemed  their  houses  as  inviolable 
castles  and  sanctuaries.  Such  a  spirit  and  bearing  are 
not  peculiar  to  one  age  or  race. 

The  Normans  came  from  the  same  parent  stock  as  the 
Danes  and  the  Saxons.  Early  in  the  tenth  century,  a 
Norwegian  chief,  Rollo,  became  a  sea-rover,  or  pirate. 
With  a  band  of  reckless  men  he  sailed  hither  and 
thither,  attn eking  and  robbing  various  coasts.  Among 
these  was  France,  whose  King,  Charles  the  Simple,  after 
repeated  irruptions  and  conflicts,  was  glad  to  purchase 
quietness  by  giving  his  daughter  in  marriage  to  Rollo,  in 
912.  Charles  also  allotted  all  the  land  in  the  valley  of 
the  Seine,  from  the  Epte  and  the  Eure  to  the  sea ;  a 
province  afterwards  known  as  Normandy,  or  the  Land 
of  the  Northmen.  These  people  acquired  some  im- 
portance in  Europe.  They  were  warlike,  vigorous,  and 
enterprising.  They  rapidly  adopted  the  more  civilized 
forms  of  life  that  prevailed  in  the  Prankish  kingdom  ; 
with  its  religion,  language,  and  manners ;  but  they 
infused  into  all  their  own  splendid  vitality  and  energy. 
During  the  reign  of  ^thelred,  and  long  before  the  close 
of  the  tenth  century,  complaints  had  been  made  of  the 
harbouring  in  Normandy  of  Danish  pirates,  after  their 
swift  and  ferocious  raids  upon  the  English  coasts.  The 
mediation  of  Pope  John  XV.  was  invoked,  and  an 
arrangement  made  that  neither  country  should  receive 
and  succour  the  enemies  of  the  other.  At  a  later  period, 
during  the  last  seven  years  of  Cnut's  reign,  Duke  Robert 


96  CONTEST  OF  RACES.  [chap.  vi. 

of  Normandy  set  up  various  pretensions  on  behalf  of  the 
children  of  his  aunt,  Queen  Emma,  to  the  crown  of 
England.  He  went  so  far  once  as  to  collect  a  fleet  for 
the  purpose  of  invasion  ;  but  contrary  winds  prevailed, 
and  as  the  particular  place  seems  to  have  been  immaterial, 
so  long  as  fresh  conquests  were  made,  Brittany  was 
attacked  instead  of  England.  Duke  Robert  went  on  the 
customary  pilgrimage  to  Rome,  having  first,  not  without 
diffxulty,  induced  the  great  men  of  his  duchy  to  recognise 
as  his  successor  an  illegitimate  son,  then  seven  years  of 
age.  The  father's  violent  character  had  gained  for  him 
in  the  colloquial  language  of  that  time  the  name  of 
Robert  the  Devil.  His  little  son,  born  in  1027,  was 
already  familiarly  known,  in  the  same  free  and  expressive 
idiom,  as  William  the  Bastard.  The  appellation  clung 
to  him  through  life.  Even  in  the  loose  conjugal  re-- 
lationships  of  that  age — and  those  of  the  ducal  house  of 
Normandy  were  peculiarly  elastic  —  no  attempt  was  ever 
made  to  raise  the  mother  of  William,  herself  a  tanner's 
daughter  of  Falaise,  to  the  rank  of  wife.  The  accom- 
modating morals  of  the  period  made  no  trouble  of  this, 
and  attached  no  stigma  to  the  offspring. 

Duke  Robert  sickened  and  died  on  his  pilgrimage. 
Anarchy  at  once  burst  out.  One  guardian  after  another 
of  the  little  Duke  was  poisoned  or  assassinated.  Power- 
ful soldiers  intrigued  among  themselves.  The  land  was 
studded  with  castles.  Law  was  flouted,  and  the  rule  of 
the  strong  prevailed.  At  length  the  aid  of  Henry, 
King  of  the  French,  was  invoked,  as  the  suzerain  of 
Normandy,  and  the  battle  of  Val-es-dunes,  near  to 
Caen,  was  fought  in  1047.  This  was  the  turning-point 
in  the  early  career  of  the  young  Duke  William,  and  led 
to  the  establishment  of  his  authority.  Subsequent  out- 
breaks were  put  down  with  a  stern  and  even  merciless 
hand.  It  was  a  relentless  age.  Life  and  limb  were  held 
of  no  account.  The  hands  and  feet  of  prisoners  taken  in 
war  were  chopped  off ;  their  eyes  gouged  out ;  noses  and 
ears  sliced  away ;  and  other  horrible,  shameful,  and 
nameless  mutilations  were  perpetrated.  At  the  siege  of 
Alengon,  in  1049,  because  the  castle  held  out,  the  dis- 
membered limbs  of  thirty-two  captives  were  flung  over 
the  walls  as  a  ghastly  threat.     Probably   Duke  William 


A.D.  1042- 1066.]        DUKE  WILLIAM.  97 

was  not  worse  than  many  of  his  compeers.  The  troubled 
circumstances  of  his  childhood  and  early  youth,  acting 
•upon  a  disposition  imperious  and  stern  by  nature, 
developed  a  spirit  that,  to  modern  notions,  seems  re- 
volting in  its  hardness  and  barbarism.  There  was  in  him 
a  mingled  strain  of  the  buccaneer,  the  wolf,  and  the 
statesman.  He  succeeded  in  curbing  his  rude  barons, 
and  in  making  all  his  people  understand  that  he  meant 
to  rule.  He  consolidated  his  power  by  a  marriage  with 
Matilda,  daughter  of  Count  Baldwin  of  Flanders.  The 
rude  tradition  of  the  time  said  that  his  masterful 
nature  compelled  her  consent  by  publicly  beating  her 
and  rolling  her  in  the  dust ;  after  repeated  refusals  of  his 
suit.  He  successfully  resisted,  in  1054,  the  attacks  of  his 
French  over-lord,  prompted  by  jealousy  of  the  growing 
power  of  his  vassal.  William  had  the  astuteness  to  turn 
that  success  to  account  in  making  inroads  upon  Anjou. 
In  1060,  he  revived  some  dormant  claims  upon  Maine ; 
which  he  subjugated  three  years  later.  Thus  he 
strengthened  himself  on  every  side,  and  all  the  time  was 
unconsciously  preparing  the  way  for  his  great  venture, 
which  he  seems  to  have  early  contemplated. 

Nine  years  before,  he  had  visited  the  English  Court; 
being  then  twenty-four  years  of  age.  It  is  not  known, 
though  not  unlikely,  whether  on  this  visit  he  formed 
a  specific  design  upon  the  insular  crown,  or  what  private 
communications  passed  between  him  and  his  kinsman 
Eadward.  It  was  afterwards  alleged  that  the  latter  had 
then  promised  to  bequeath  the  Crown  to  William ; 
although  the  Witan  would  have  much  to  say  about  any 
such  arrangement ;  and  its  advice  and  consent  were 
assuredly  not  sought  at  that  time.  The  Norman  must 
have  seen  enough  to  convince  him  that  the  country  was 
worth  winning  ;  that  the  sceptre  was  in  impotent  hands ; 
and  that  he  might  reckon  upon  the  aid  of  such  of  his 
own  countrymen  as  held  high  posts  in  State  or  Church 
in  England.  In  the  early  part  of  Eadward's  reign,  and 
during  the  troublous  times  preceding,  the  actual  govern- 
ment had  rested  with  three  great  nobles,  who  bore  the 
Danish  title  of  Earls  ;  though  it  was  not  at  that  time 
transmitted  in  hereditary  succession  from  father  to  son. 
These  three  nobles  were   Earl  Siward,  a  Dane  by  birtli, 

9 


98  CONTEST  OF  RACES.  [chap.  vi. 

whose  rule  extended  from  the  Humber  to  the  Scottisli 
border ;  Earl  Leofric,  who  administered  the  affairs  of 
most  of  the  Northern  districts  of  the  old  Kingdom  of 
Mercia ;  and  Earl  Godwine,  who,  under  Cnut's  appoint- 
ment in  1 020,  ruled  in  Wessex,  Sussex,  and  Kent,  or 
the  whole  of  England  South  and  West  of  the  Thames. 
In  addition,  his  sons  and  a  nephew  had  charge  of  the 
Midland  and  Eastern  districts,  and  his  daughter  Eadgyth, 
was  married  to  Eadward.  Thus  the  Godwine  family 
exercised  a  wide  sway,  because  the  authority  of  Eadward 
was  restricted  by  his  semi-monkish  seclusion.  It  is  a 
curious  illustration  of  the  false  standard  of  morality  and 
saintliness  then  prevailing,  that  he  is  lauded  as  having 
more  than  the  continence  of  a  Scipio  ;  for  it  is  told,  as 
a  matter  of  pre-eminent  virtue,  that  he  abstained  of 
set  purpose  from  consummating  his  marriage.  The 
Chroniclers  fairly  exult  in  the  description  of  what  they 
regard  as  such  marvellous  chastity. 

After  the  second  squabble  at  Dover  with  Count 
Eustache,  in  105 1,  Earl  Godwine  was  ordered  by  the 
King  to  march  an  army  against  the  place,  and  punish  the 
townspeople.  He  refused  ;  bluntly  declaring  that  they 
were  in  the  right.  This  led  to  disputes  with  the 
Norman  favourites,  who  seized  on  the  opportunity  to 
foment  strife  between  him  and  Eadward.  To  prevent 
a  civil  war,  Godwine  and  most  of  his  family  left  the 
country,  and  passed  the  Winter  in  rhe  Court  of  Flanders  ; 
then  the  usual  shelter  for  English  exiles.  Harold,  the 
eldest  son,  and  his  younger  brother  went  by  way  of 
Bristol  to  Ireland,  and  found  refuge  with  Dermot,  King 
of  Dublin  and  Leinster.  All  their  vast  property  was 
declared  to  be  forfeited,  and  their  offices  were  conferred 
on  Normans.  Duke  William,  coming  over  in  the  absence 
of  the  Godwine  family,  had  every  reason  to  hope  that  the 
country  might  be  won  ;  but  after  he  had  left,  Godwine 
returned,  and  his  popularity  was  such  that  his  old  friends 
and  tenants  trooped  around  him.  The  army  dispatched 
against  him  would  not  fight  one  who  was  regarded  as  a 
patriotic  Englishman.  Through  the  mediation  of  Stigand, 
the  Saxon  Bishop  of  Winchester,  peace  was  made,  and 
Eadward,  at  a  Witan  held  in  London,  restored  Godwine 
and  his  family  to  their  former  wealth  and  power.     The 


A.D.  1042-1066.]        EARL  GO  DIVINE.  99 

Normans  who  held  lucrative  offices  in  England  were 
alarmed.  Most  of  them  withdrew,  with  such  spoil  as 
they  could  seize.  Among  them  were  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury  and  the  Bishop  of  London,  whose  posts  were 
declared  vacant.  The  former  office  was  given  to  Stigand ; 
but  the  Pope  would  not  own  him  as  primate,  and  this 
gave  a  colourable  pretext  to  subsequent  events. 

Godwine  died  in  1054 ;  to  the  intense  grief  of  the 
English  people.  Strong  men  wept  around  his  grave  in 
the  Minster  of  Winchester.  He  was  the  embodiment  of 
all  that  Englishmen  then  prized,  of  manliness,  freedom, 
and  justice.  His  memory  continued  to  be  embalmed  for 
generations  in  popular  story  and  song.  Norman  libellers, 
who  calumniated  him  as  Godwine  the  Traitor,  had  their 
little,  spiteful  day.  His  character  has  long  since  been 
vindicated.  He  is  the  precursor  of  Simon  de  Montfort, 
and  of  an  illustrious  line  of  patriots,  whose  names  the 
English  will  never  allow  to  die.  His  son,  Harold  (1022- 
1066),  then  about  thirty-two  years  of  age,  was  appointed 
to  fill  his  great  place,  and  became  the  virtual  ruler  of 
England  until  the  death  of  the  King,  in  1066.  He 
confirmed  and  strengthened  the  love  of  his  countrymen 
to  his  family,  and  displayed  on  the  battle-field  and  in  the 
Court  his  power  to  govern.  Earl  Siward  also  died,  and 
his  vast  rule  in  Northumbria  was  given  to  Tostig,  Harold's 
brother.  He  was  charged  with  governing  so  harshly 
that  the  people,  among  whom  the  Danish  love  of  freedom 
was  inherent,  expelled  him  in  1065.  When  Harold 
marched  with  an  army  to  put  down  the  rising,  he  found 
such  just  cause  of  complaint  against  his  brother  that  he 
advised  his  removal.  Morkere,  one  of  the  sons  of  Leofric, 
was  appointed  in  the  room  of  Tostig,  who  retired  in 
dudgeon  and  wrath  to  Flanders. 

Prior  to  that  unhappy  event,  the  great  house  of 
Godwine  had  reached  a  pinnacle  of  dignity  and  power, 
such  as  was  never  attained  before  or  since  by  one 
family.  When  Harold  began  to  think  of  the  Crown 
for  himself,  cannot  be  determined ;  but  he  must  have 
had  visions  of  the  possibility  of  reigning  in  name  as 
well  as  in  fact.  For  a  period  of  at  least  twelve  years, 
and  probably  to  a  great  extent  during  the  lifetime  of 
his   father,    Harold   had   exercised   an  actual   quasi  regal 


loo  CONTEST  OF  RACES.  [chap.  vi. 

authority,  if  not  a  nominal  joint  rule,  with  Eadward.  He 
hid  shown  himself  to  be,  though  not  of  royal  descent, 
truly  regal  in  character  and  able  to  rule  justly.  Like  his 
great  father,  he  was  a  born  king  of  men  ;  in  the  noblest 
sense.  It  was  reserved  for  a  later  and  meaner  age  to 
traduce  and  vilify  him,  and  to  set  up  a  pretended  Divine 
Right  of  kingship  by  mere  heritage  and  the  accident 
of  birth,  apart  altogether  from  personal  character  and 
powers  of  administration.  In  clamouring  over  the 
form,  the  essence  was  forgotten.  But  England  and  the 
English  of  the  year  1066  stand  forth  in  majestic  supe- 
riority to  those  who  rendered  possible  the  second  Stuart 
tyranny,  with  its  insolent  assumptions  over  national 
rights,  and  its  conspiracy  against  national  liberties. 

Eadward's  life  was  drawing  to  its  close.  Body  and 
mind  had  long  been  enfeebled  by  his  severe  penances 
and  ascetism.  The  death- bed  scenes  are  minutely 
recorded ;  special  details  being  given  of  supposed  visions 
seen  by  the  dying  man,  and  of  prophetic  utterances  and 
warnings  he  is  represented  to  have  made.  All  of  these 
are,  manifestly,  apocryphal.  Asked  whom  he  nominated 
as  his  successor,  he  pointedly  signified  Harold,  who  stood 
by,  and  addressed  to  him  farewell  wishes  and  directions. 
He  then  quiedy  passed  away,  January  5,  1066,  in  the 
twenty-fourth  year  of  his  nominal  reign.  He  was  buried, 
as  he  desired,  in  the  Abbey  of  St.  Peter  at  Westminster; 
built  and  richly  endowed  by  him,  and  the  consecration  of 
which  he  lived  just  long  enough  to  witness.  The  original 
fabric  has  disappeared  ;  portions  of  the  domestic  buildings 
only  having  been  spared  when  Henry  III.  commenced 
the  present  structure.  All  that  is  left  besides  of  Eadward's 
Minster  is  to  be  found  in  a  few  bases  of  columns  and 
sundry  other  fragments  brought  to  light  in  modern  exca- 
vations. It  was  a  massive,  heavy,  gloomy  edifice,  of  the 
prevailing  Norman  type  which  imposed  itself  so  largely 
upon  English  architecture  for  more  than  a  century. 

The  two  little  children  of  Eadmund  Ironside  had  been 
sent  in  1017  to  King  Stephen  of  Hungary;  out  of  the 
way  of  Cnut.  One  of  them  was  still  living  there,  and 
in  1054,  apparently  on  the  joint  action  of  the  King  and 
the  Witan,  this  nephew  was  invited  to  England.  He 
did  not  arrive  for  three  years,  and  he  sickened  and  died 


A.D.  1042-1066.]     HAROLD  CROWNED.  loi 

almost  immediately ;  at  the  age  of  forty-one.  Doubt- 
less the  intention  was  to  arrange,  as  far  as  could  be,  for 
his  succeeding  to  the  throne  ;  for  the  fact  of  the  next 
legal  heir  being  sent  for — apart  from  the  confirmatory 
choice  of  a  monarch  by  the  Witan — disposes  of  the 
pretence  afterwards  raised  by  William  of  Normandy ; 
that  Eadward  the  Confessor  had  promised  in  105 1  to 
make  him  his  heir.  The  returned  exile  left  a  son, 
Eadgar,  afterwards  known  as  the  /Etheling,  or,  "the 
nobly-born."  An  unfortunate  mental  weakness  spared 
him  the  jealousy  and  danger  that  would  have  attacked  a 
possible  rival  to  the  English  throne.  Two  daughters  also 
remained ;  but  they  soon  drop  out  of  history.  The 
"  spindle-side "  was  not  then  thought  of  in  the  succes- 
sion. No  time  was  lost  in  filling  the  vacant  throne  on 
the  death  of  Eadward.  The  crisis  was  urgent,  and  the 
necessity  for  prompt  action  explains  and  vindicates 
the  apparent  unseemliness  of  performing  the  funeral 
rites  of  one  monarch  and  the  coronation  of  his  successor 
in  the  same  place  and  on  the  same  day.  The  Christmas 
Witan  was  still  in  session.  It  had  already,  at  the 
time  of  the  dedication  of  the  Abbey,  December  28,  1065, 
unanimously  declared  Harold  to  be  the  heir  to  the  throne. 
He  rested  his  claim  chiefly  on  this,  and  partly  on  the 
expressed  wishes  of  the  dying  Eadward.  No  delay 
occurred  in  the  coronation ;  which  took  place  before 
the  Witan  was  dispersed.  It  was  performed  by  Ealdred, 
Archbishop  of  York.  Stigand  being  still  unrecognised 
by  Rome,  it  was  desirable  not  to  risk  any  doubt  as  to 
canonical  regularity.  The  only  disaffection  shown  was 
by  the  Anglo-Danish  population  of  Northumbria ;  but 
Harold  went  thither  immediately  with  some  of  his  most 
trusty  friends,  and  by  his  wise  conduct  soon  won  the 
respect  and  the  allegiance  of  the  people.  The  real 
danger  was  threatened  from  abroad,  in  two  quarters. 
His  brother  Tostig  was  known  to  be  contemplating  an 
attack  upon  England,  aided  by  the  soldiers  of  fortune 
whom  he  was  collecting  on  the  Continent,  and  it  was 
impossible  to  foresee  when  or  where  this  would  be  made. 
Duke  William  also  was  doing  his  utmost  to  forre  Harold 
to  yield  to  his  claim.  Both  of  these  storms  bu:st  within 
a  short  time. 


I02  CONTEST  OF  RACES.  [chap.  vi. 

The  Norman  had  his  friends  at  the  Court  of  Eadward, 
who  kept  him  informed  of  the  state  of  affairs.  News  of 
the  death  of  the  late  King  and  of  Harold's  coronation 
must  have  reached  him  at  the  same  time.  Conflicting 
accounts  exist  of  how  he  received  the  tidings.  He  sent 
an  embassy  to  England  to  make  a  formal  demand  of  the 
Crown ;  but  the  terms  used  are  not  clear,  and  it  is 
certain  that  he  did  not  expect  compliance.  It  was  desir- 
able, however,  to  give  the  semblance  of  technical  legality 
to  every  step  in  a  course  of  procedure  long  since  deter- 
mined upon.  This  was  in  accordance  with  his  uniform 
policy  through  life.  The  Normans  were  great  sticklers 
for  the  pedantic  proprieties,  in  which  respect  they  were 
closely  imitated  by  the  Tudors.  Nothing  is  known  of 
the  precise  character  of  Harold's  reply.  Its  scope  is  easy 
of  conjecture.  The  matter  had  passed  far  beyond  the 
stage  of  negotiation.  Both  sides  looked  forward  to  a 
conflict  as  inevitable.  William  must  have  known  all 
along  that  he  had  no  chance  of  winning  England  for 
himself,  otherwise  than  by  force  ;  but  he  strove  to  give 
his  pretensions  the  appearance  of  right  in  the  eyes  of 
Europe.  Hence  he  did  everything  to  disparage  the 
character  and  to  weaken  the  claims  of  his  great  rival, 
who,  though  in  possession  of  the  Crown  of  England, 
was  stigmatized  as  a  usurper  and  an  oath-breaker.  The 
custom  of  applying  obnoxious  epithets  to  political  oppo- 
nents, and  of  inventing  specious  but  untruthful  party- 
cries,  is  of  ancient  date.  An  attempt  was  also  made  to 
substantiate  the  pretended  right  of  succession  on  William's 
part,  on  the  plea  of  the  alleged  bequest  from  Eadward. 

The  whole  course  of  the  Norman  invader,  and  the 
line  of  defence  and  special  pleading  adopted  by  his  apolo- 
getic Chroniclers,  were  skilfully  designed  to  impart  a 
legal  and  moral  colouring  to  a  flagrant  instance  of 
invasion  and  robbery.  The  plea  of  succession  or  bequest 
will  not  bear  a  moment's  examination.  Blood  relation- 
ship was  too  remote.  Nor  was  the  kingdom  a  private 
estate,  to  be  conveyed  by  the  will  of  the  last  holder. 
The  wishes  and  sanction  of  the  people,  as  expressed  in 
the  Great  Council,  had  been  essential  through  a  long 
series  of  reigns.  Even  if  Eadward  made  some  kind  o^ 
promise — which    is    extremely   doubtful,    and   its   precise 


A.D.  I042-I036.]  APPEAL  TO  SENTIMENT.  103 

nature  has  never  transpired — it  was,  assuredly,  revocable, 
and  was  superseded  by  the  subsequent  bequest  to 
Harold.  In  any  case,  it  certainly  was  not  binding  upon 
his  subjects,  and  they  had  already,  in  their  constitutional 
Witan,  chosen  Harold  as  King.  After  William  succeeded 
in  his  enterprise,  he  was  careful  not  to  put  forward  the 
plea  of  conquest  as  the  ground  of  his  pretended  right  to 
the  throne.  It  was  always  based  upon  an  assumed  heir- 
ship, and  this  pretence  of  bequest  operated  powerfully  at 
that  time  on  the  Continent,  where  feudalism  was  growing, 
and  elective  rights  were  weakening.  To  the  princely  and 
baronial  robber-rulers  of  Europe,  Harold's  claim  to  reign 
solely  by  the  popular  will  seemed  absurd,  because  the  law 
and  the  usage  of  England  were  unknown  ;  or,  if  known, 
were  scorned  in  Normandy. 

Added  to  all  this,  an  artful  appeal  was  made  to  what  is 
sometimes  called  "  religious  sentiment,"  but  which  is 
often  fanatical  superstition,  personal  selfishness,  or  dia- 
bolical craft.  Official  religion  has  been  made  to  lend  her 
sanction  to  atrocious  injustice  and  wickedness  in  number- 
less forms  and  instances.  Reports  were  circulated  that 
Harold  was  both  a  usurper  and  a  perjurer.  He  was 
represented  as  having  deliberately  broken  solemn  oaths. 
This  was  certain  to  operate  to  his  prejudice,  in  that 
priest  ridden  age.  It  was  a  hypocritical  cloak  for  an 
act  of  fraud  ;  just  as  the  brigands  of  modern  Italy  go  to 
Mass  ere  they  sally  forth  to  rob  and  murder.  So  far  as 
is  known  of  the  vague  circumstances,  for  which  no 
evidence  exists  beyond  that  of  the  prejudiced  Norman 
Chroniclers,  Harold  had  been  wrecked  on  the  coast  of 
Normandy  some  years  before,  and,  in  accordance  with  the 
barbarous  usage  of  the  times,  was  regarded  as  a  captive. 
The  allegation  is  that,  in  order  to  regain  his  liberty,  he 
swore  on  a  copy  of  the  Gospels  and  on  saintly  relics  to 
assist  William  to  secure  the  English  Crown.  The  scene 
is  depicted  on  the  tapestry  preserved  at  Bayeux  ;  once 
thought  to  have  been  the  handiwork  of  William's  wife, 
Matilda.  The  accounts  are  conflicting ;  but  even  if 
Harold  took  the  oath,  it  must  be  remembered  that  he 
was  in  the  Duke's  power,  and  such  an  extorted  promise 
is  not  binding.  Shakspere  embodies  a  universal  truth 
when    he    says, — "  Unheedful    vows    may    heedfully    be 


ro4  CONTEST  OF  RACES.  [chap.  vi. 

broken."  Nor  could  he  swear  to  do  what  was  wholly 
beyond  his  power ;  and  certainly  the  people  of  England 
were  not  parties  to  the  pretended  compact.  But  the 
story  served  William's  purpose,  by  arousing  prejudice. 
Thousands  of  adventurers  showed  what  good  Christians 
they  were  by  joining  in  a  scheme  to  overthrow  the  power 
and  to  share  in  plundering  the  possessions  of  such  an 
alleged  oath-breaker.  It  must  be  remembered,  in  esti- 
mating the  worth  of  contemporary  writers,  that  such  of 
them  as  were  monks  dishked  Harold,  whose  hand  was 
closed  against  them,  while  it  freely  opened  to  the 
parochial  clergy.  His  famous  foundation  of  the  Holy 
Rood  at  Waltham,  in  Hertfordshire,  where  he  was 
buried,  was  not  an  Abbey,  and  did  not  become  a  religious 
house  until  the  time  of  Henry  H.,  who  banished  the 
twelve  Secular  Canons,  and  installed  an  abbot  and 
Augustinian  monks  in  their  room.  The  clergy  whom 
Harold  appointed  were  secular  priests,  who  could  marry, 
and  some  of  whom  were  married.  Part  of  their  work 
was  educational,  and  the  founder  took  special  pains  for 
this  being  efificiently  performed.  The  ill-will  of  the 
monks  is  part  of  his  high  praise,  and  their  denuncia- 
tions, being  manifestly  inspired  by  prejudice  and  bigotry, 
are  worthless. 

Another  part  of  this  specious  scheme  of  invasion  was 
to  obtain  the  sanction  of  Pope  Alexander  H.  (r.  1061— 
1073)  against  a  man  alleged  to  have  committed  perjury 
of  an  exceptional  and  flagrant  kind,  and  who  was  there- 
fore out  of  the  pale  of  the  Church.  The  real  crime  in 
the  eyes  of  Rome  was  the  comparative  independence  of 
the  English  Church.  The  expulsion  of  the  Norman 
prelates  from  the  country,  and  the  difficulty  of  securing 
from  it  implicit  obedience  to  the  claims  of  supremacy 
then  being  set  up ;  with  the  hope — futile,  as  it  proved — ■ 
that  the  Normans  would  be  more  pliable  in  this  respect, 
led  the  Pope  and  his  advisers  to  countenance  the  project. 
A  Gonfanon,  or  consecrated  standard  of  purple  silk,  was 
sent  to  hallow  the  cause  of  fraud  and  rapine ;  and  also  a 
diamond  ring,  said  to  contain  one  of  the  hairs  of  St. 
Peter.  Thus  a  robber  raid  received  ecclesiastical  approval 
as  a  Holy  War.  The  end  was  supposed  to  sanctify  the 
means  :  however  base  and  sordid.     It  was  stipulated  that 


A.D.  1042-1066.]  HILDEBRAND.  105 

Duke  William  should  hold  England  as  a  fief  from  Rome, 
and  should  secure  for  ever  the  payment  of  Peter's  Pence. 
The  pride  and  pomp  of  Rome  were  at  their  zenith. 
Hildebrand,  afterwards  Pope  Gregory  VII.,  was  the 
ruling  spirit.  He  had  formed  a  design  to  subject  all 
princes  to  the  Papacy.  He  was  the  historic  representa- 
tive of  its  temporal  claims  as  well  as  of  its  spiritual 
supremacy.  He  laboured  to  separate  the  clergy  into  a 
distinct  Order,  with  exclusive  privileges.  Born  in 
Tuscany,  in  1020,  his  youth  was  spent  in  a  monastery 
in  Rome.  He  afterwards  went  to  the  renowned  one  of 
Clugny,  where  his  education  was  completed,  and  where 
he  acquired  the  habits  of  austerity  which  marked  his 
whole  life.  Becoming  chaplain  to  Leo  IX.,  in  1049,  he 
was  soon  created  a  cardinal,  and  filled  various  important 
posts.  Under  the  four  short  pontificates  which  followed 
— known  in  history  as  the  German  Popes — he  continued 
to  exercise  the  influence  and  to  sway  the  councils  of  the 
Vatican,  in  the  same  way  that  he  had  done  under 
Leo  IX.  He  was  virtually  the  Pope-maker  of  that 
period,  as  the  Earl  of  Warwick  was  the  King-maker 
during  the  Wars  of  the  Roses,  and  was  the  mysterious 
power  behind  the  throne.  He  thus  paved  the  way  for 
tlie  full  development  of  his  theories,  and  for  the  attain- 
ment of  his  two  chief  objects,  when  he  was  unanimously 
elected  by  the  Conclave,  with  the  consent  of  the  Emperor 
Henry  IV.,  in  1073. 

Hildebrand  continued  until  his  death,  twelve  years 
later,  to  struggle  for  the  maintenance  of  principles  and 
for  the  extension  of  a  policy  with  which  he  believed  the 
welfare  of  the  Church  and  the  regeneration  of  society  to 
be  bound  up.  The  position  occupied  by  the  higher 
clergy  as  feudal  lords  ;  the  right  claimed  by  sovereigns 
to  invest  prelates  with  the  temporal  possessions  attaching 
to  their  Sees ;  the  consequent  dependence  of  the  clergy, 
and  the  temptations  to  simony,  were,  in  his  view,  the 
chief  causes  of  the  evils  then  prevalent  in  Europe.  He 
laboured  to  enforce  the  observance  of  discipline  and  to 
repress  abuses  ;  but  he  regarded  the  investiture  of  pre- 
lates by  monarchs  as  the  source  of  the  evils.  He  at  once 
prohibited  this  practice,  under  threat  of  excommunica 
tion,    which   he   proceeded   to   fulminate   against   sevcuil 


ro6  CONTEST  OF  RACES.  [chap,  vl 

bishops  and  councillors  of  the  Empire.  As  the  Emperor 
Henry  IV.  disregarded  these  menaces,  and  took  the 
offenders  under  his  protection,  he  was  cited  to  Rome 
to  explain  his  conduct.  The  answer  was  a  haughty 
defiance,  and  a  formal  deposition  from  the  pontificate. 
Gregory  retaliated  by  excommunication.  His  proud  oppo- 
nent was  forced  to  yield  a  feigned  submission,  and  to 
perform  a  humiliating  penance,  ere  he  was  absolved  by 
the  Pope  in  person  in  January,  1077.  Hostilities  soon 
broke  forth  again  between  the  two  potentates.  Neither 
would  concede  the  point  at  issue,  though  Gregory  was 
driven  from  Rome  to  Salerno,  where  he  died. 

His  poHcy  was  continued  by  his  successors  ;  few  of 
whom,  however,  equalled  him  in  boldness  and  ability. 
Even  those  who  most  strongly  reprobate  his  scheme  as 
inimical  to  the  rights  of  humanity,  confess  that  the  con- 
ception was  grand  and  lofty.  The  spiritual  power  was  to 
be  the  first  and  highest.  It  was  to  direct  and  command 
the  temporal  power.  In  the  hands  of  wise  and  good 
men,  it  might  have  been  productive,  in  that  hard  and 
cruel  age,  of  benefit  to  the  defenceless  and  the  oppressed. 
But  in  other  hands  it  was  certain  to  become  an  engine 
of  tyranny  and  a  means  of  corruption.  In  any  case,  it 
was  a  preposterous  authority  to  claim,  and  one  that  it 
would  have  been  dangerous  to  yield.  The  bolts  of  the 
fabled  Jove  were  nothing  to  those  hurled  by  the  Vatican. 
Happily  for  the  future  of  England  and  of  the  world,  the 
ambitious  project,  after  being  nearly  successful,  utterly 
collapsed.  With  such  a  puissant  ally  as  Hildebrand, 
acting  through  the  nominal  occupant  of  the  Papal  chair, 
William  was  placed  in  a  most  advantageous  position  in 
the  eyes  of  Christendom.  In  the  end,  he  showed  himself 
to  be  anything  but  a  docile  son  of  the  Church,  and  he 
succeeded  in  holding  his  own  against  the  priesthood. 
After  his  death,  a  prolific  source  of  trouble  sprang  up 
for  England  during  many  years,  from  the  seeds  of 
ecclesiastical  interference  sown  by  his  arrangement  with 
Rome. 

Thus  everything  was  done  that  personal  greed,  military 
ambition,  diplomatic  intrigue,  and  priestly  craft  could 
devise  to  give  a  colourable  pretext  to  the  contemplated 
attack.     None  of  the  assigned  reasons  possess  much  force 


A.D.  1042-1066.]  PREPARA  TIONS  FOR  INVASION.   107 

when  separately  examined.  Some  of  them  were  alto- 
gether beside  the  mark.  Others  were  entirely  fallacious 
and  misleading.  The  whole  structure  was  carefully  put 
together,  and  made  to  appear  substantial  and  strong ; 
although,  like  stage  architecture,  it  was  baseless  and 
illusory.  While  all  these  ecclesiastical  fulminations  were 
being  launched  for  the  sake  of  appearances,  the  arm  of 
flesh  was  made  as  strong  as  possible.  The  real  appeal 
was  to  selfishness  and  greed.  Duke  William  had  not 
a  little  trouble  at  first  with  his  own  barons.  They  had 
no  compunctions  on  the  score  of  equity ;  but  the  enter- 
prise seemed  hazardous,  if  not  impossible.  There  were 
long,  anxious,  and  angry  debates,  many  blandishments, 
some  threats,  much  cajolery ;  but,  at  length,  the  hope 
of  plunder  and  abundant  promises  of  reward  gained  the 
day.  Besides  seeking  the  aid  of  his  own  baronage  and 
the  sanction  of  Rome,  he  issued  his  Ban  of  War  in  the 
neighbouring  countries ;  offering  large  pay  and  license 
to  pillage  to  every  tall,  strong  man  who  would  serve  him 
with  lance,  sword,  or  cross-bow.  Europe  swarmed  with 
thousands  of  armed  ruffians — "soldiers  of  fortune,"  as 
the  phrase  went — ready  to  fight  anywhere,  for  any 
cause,  and  for  any  one  who  paid  enough.  They  were 
called  in  the  following  century,  Brabangons  —  from 
Brabant,  the  great  nest  of  these  hired  banditti— and 
were  the  precursors  of  the  Italian  Condottieri  of  the 
fourteenth  century.  Crowds  of  such  swashbucklers 
offered  their  services  to  the  Norman  adventurer.  A  rich 
carcase  awaited  the  hawks  and  vultures.  All  the  titled 
brigands,  the  professional  adventurers,  and  the  military 
vagabonds  of  Western  Europe  trooped  to  Normandy, 
scenting  the  prey.  Some  were  knights  and  chiefs, 
others  were  foot-soldiers,  and  many  were  the  stragglers, 
the  scum,  and  the  rascaldom  who  always  hang  upon  the 
skirts  of  armies,  preferring  the  excitement  of  a  predatory 
life  to  the  sober  toil  of  honest  industry.  Some  demanded 
large  pay ;  others  only  asked  for  a  passage  across,  and 
leave  to  take  all  the  booty  they  could. 

It  is  an  idle  fiction  to  say  that  the  undertaking  was 
distinctively  Norman  ;  just  as  it  is  to  pretend  that  its 
leader  was  seeking  only  his  legal  rights,  or  prosecuting  a 
pious  adventure.     His  attempt  was  nothing  more  than  a 


io8  CONTEST  OF  RACES.  [chap.  vi. 

bold  military  raid  by  a  huge  gang  of  miscellaneous  free- 
booters, which  chanced  to  be  successful  under  favouring 
conditions.  Had  it  failed,  he  would  have  been  spoken  of 
with  contempt  and  scorn.  As  he  succeeded,  he  won  all 
the  praise  which  success  usually  commands.  Out  of  it, 
through  Providential  wisdom  and  goodness,  much  benefit 
accrued  eventually  ;  but,  in  its  inception,  it  was  nothing 
more  than  a  scheme  for  conquest  and  plunder,  carried  on 
under  false  pretences.  The  Bayeux  Tapestry  depicts  the 
comet  that  appeared  at  Easter,  1066,  fiUing  Europe 
with  astonishment  or  alarm  at  the  portent.  Wace,  the 
Norman  Chronicler,  describes  it  as  "  shining  for  fourteen 
days,  with  three  long  rays  streaming  towards  the  earth, 
and  a  star  as  is  wont  to  be  seen  when  a  kingdom  is  about 
changing  its  king."  It  is  now  commonly  supposed  to 
have  been  Halley's  Comet,  which  appeared  in  1835;  its 
average  periodic  time  being  seventy-seven  years.  During 
the  Spring  and  Summer  of  1066,  preparations  actively 
went  on.  Arms  were  fabricated  and  repaired.  Military 
stores  were  collected.  Vessels,  great  and  small — though 
the  largest  were  insignificant  compared  with  modern 
craft — were  hired,  borrowed,  or  annexed  for  purposes  of 
transport ;  rivalling  the  bridge  of  boats  by  which  Xerxes 
crossed  the  Hellespont.  The  mouth  of  the  River  Dive, 
not  far  from  that  of  the  Seine,  was  fixed  upon  for  the 
rendezvous.  The  actual  point  of  departure,  however, 
was  from  Valery,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Somme ;  as  con- 
trary winds  prevailed  at  the  time  of  starting.  As  to  the 
precise  numbers  forming  the  expedition,  the  usual  un- 
certainty prevails,  owing  to  diverse  statements.  The  fleet 
is  reckoned  by  various  writers  at  from  six  hundred  and 
ninety-six  ships  to  more  than  three  thousand ;  but  the 
latter  estimate  must  include  every  little  boat,  and  it  is 
certainly  exaggerated.  The  army  assembled  is  made  to 
range  from  fourteen  to  sixty  thousand,  and  even  more.  Of 
actual  knights  or  fighting  men,  the  reasonable  approxima- 
tion is  to  the  smaller  number. 

Harold  was  not  idle  during  the  Spring  of  that  eventful 
year.  He  made  every  preparation  to  hinder  the  threat- 
ened landing.  Ships  were  kept  in  readiness  to  guard  the 
Channel.  As  the  time  drew  near  when  the  invasion  was 
certain  to  be  attempted,  he  went  into  Sussex  to  complete 


A.D.  1042-1066.]      NORWEGIAN  RAID.  log 

the  arrangements  for  watching  the  coast.  Returning 
to  Westminster  in  May,  he  heard  that  his  brother 
Tostig,  at  the  head  of  a  number  of  Flemish  and 
other  freebooters,  had  made  a  descent  on  the  Isle  of 
Wight,  whence  they  sailed  as  far  as  Sandwich,  landing 
and  ravaging  as  they  went.  This  was  done  with  the 
knowledge  if  not  at  the  direct  instigation  of  the  Norman 
Duke;  glad  to  secure  the  help  of  a  recreant  Englishman. 
Before  Harold  could  reach  Sandwich,  Tostig  had  sailed 
northwards,  entering  the  Humber,  and  inflicting  much 
damage,  until  he  was  repulsed  by  the  local  forces.  He 
then  made  a  league  with  the  Norwegian  Harold  of  the 
Heavy  Hand,  who  undertook  the  conquest  of  England  in 
the  hope  of  becoming  its  king.  The  Summer  was  spent 
in  preparations,  and  in  September  a  fleet  variously  stated 
at  from  two  hundred  to  a  thousand  ships,  set  forth  from 
Norway,  near  Bergen.  It  was  the  greatest,  as  it  was 
nearly  the  last,  of  the  Scandinavian  inroads  upon  this 
island.  The  traitor,  Tostig,  joined  the  fleet  in  the  Tyne 
with  such  forces  as  remained  to  him.  The  coast  of  what 
is  now  known  as  the  Cleveland  district  was  ravaged. 
Scarborough  was  fired  and  plundered,  as  a  punishment 
for  resistance.  The  fleet  sailed  up  the  Ouse  as  far  as 
Riccall,  nine  miles  from  York,  upon  which  the  main 
body  of  the  invaders  marched.  They  were  encountered, 
in  a  half-hearted  manner,  by  Harold's  brothers-in-law, 
the  Earls  Eadwine  and  Morkere,  who  ruled  Northumbria 
and  part  of  Mercia.  A  battle  was  fought  at  Fulford, 
two  miles  from  the  city,  on  September  20,  1066.  The 
English  were  defeated.  Four  days  later,  York  surren- 
dered. Tidings  of  this  invasion  reached  Harold,  who 
instantly  addressed  himself  with  his  usual  promptitude 
and  courage,  before  news  of  the  actual  encounter  was 
received,  to  meet  the  danger.  Gathering  his  best  troops 
he  set  forth  on  that  great  march  which,  with  the  subse- 
quent battle,  are  as  deserving  of  immortal  renown  as  the 
Retreat  of  the  Ten  Thousand  Greeks  under  Xenophon. 
Nothing  but  the  swift  occurrence  of  the  more  momentous 
Battle  of  Hastings  could  have  eclipsed  the  glory  of  this 
Northern  exploit.  The  force  was  increased  on  its  march 
by  fighting  men  who  poured  in  from  all  sides.  On  the 
very   day   of  the   capitulation  of  York,   Harold  reached 


no  CONTEST  OF  RACES.  [chap.  vr. 

Tadcaster.  The  Norwegians  withdrew  to  Stamford 
Bridge ;  eight  miles  North-East  of  the  city.  Harold 
followed  them,  and  there,  on  Monday,  September  25, 
1066,  after  eight  hour's  hard  fighting,  and  tremendous 
slaughter  on  both  sides,  but  especially  on  that  of  the 
invaders,  they  were  utterly  vanquished.  Both  Harold 
Hardrada  and  Tostig  were  among  the  slain,  and  the 
bones  of  the  dead  whitened  the  ground  for  years.  The 
survivors,  after  swearing  peace  and  friendship,  were 
allowed  to  depart  for  Norway  in  twenty-four  ships, 
which  sufficed  to  carry  away  the  wreck  of  the  once 
imposing  host. 

During  this  march  and  battle,  the  Norman  force  was 
kept  inactive  at  its  new  quarters  in  the  mouth  of  the 
River  Somme,  by  reason  of  adverse  winds.  After  re- 
peated hopes  and  disappointments,  the  desired  wind 
wafted  the  fleet  across  the  Channel.  The  Norman 
Chroniclers  narrate  with  pride  and  admiration  an  in- 
stance of  their  leader's  promptitude  and  readiness,  which 
bears  a  suspicious  resemblance  to  what  is  recorded  by 
Suetonius  of  Julius  Csesar  on  his  landing  in  Africa.  He 
chanced  to  stumble  and  fall  on  the  sands  when  alighting 
from  his  ship.  This  would  have  been  interpreted  as  an  evil 
omen  in  those  superstitious  times ;  but  he  sprang  to  his 
feet,  with  his  hands  full  of  sand,  and  declared  that  he  had 
taken  seizin,  or  possession  of  the  country.  The  landing 
took  place  at  Pevensey,  in  Sussex,  the  ancient  Anderida, 
on  Thursday,  September  28,  1066.  The  news  reached 
Harold,  at  York,  where  he  was  resting  his  men.  He  at 
once  set  out  for  London,  with  the  indomitable  energy 
that  formed  so  conspicuous  a  feature  of  his  character ; 
issuing  orders  on  all  sides  for  troops  to  follow  him  with 
speed.  The  response  was  general  and  prompt,  except 
from  the  Earls  Eadwine  and  Morkere,  who  seem  to  have 
been  influenced  by  jealousy.  Their  incompetence  lost 
the  battle  of  Fulford  ;  and  their  inertness  led  mainly  to 
the  disaster  in  the  Battle  of  Hastings. 

If  the  Normans  had  been  able  to  sail  at  the  appointed 
time,  they  would  first  have  met  the  English  ships  cruis- 
ing in  the  Channel,  and  then  would  have  found  Harold 
with  a  large  army  ready  to  dispute  their  landing.  A 
week  or  two  before  or  afterwards  there  w^ould  have  been 


A.D.  1042-1066.]  FLIPPANT  CRITICISMS.  in 

a  determined  resistance  that  might  have  proved  success- 
ful, and  thus  altered  the  future  of  England.  Owing  to 
the  delay  in  the  Norman  arrival  through  contrary  winds, 
the  English  ships  had  gone  to  various  ports  to  obtain 
necessary  stores,  and  the  attack  in  the  North  had  com- 
pelled Harold  to  march  thither  with  his  best  available 
troops.  The  others  had  been  called  home  by  the  exi- 
gencies of  harvest.  The  period  and  the  conditions  of 
military  service,  it  is  needful  to  remember,  were  unde- 
fined ;  because  a  national  army,  in  the  true  sense,  did  not 
exist.  Thus  the  way  was  clear  for  the  Normans  to  land 
without  effectual  opposition.  They  made  no  attempt  at 
first  to  advance  into  the  country  beyond  the  neighbouring 
town  of  Hastings,  where,  with  their  customary  precaution, 
a  strong  wooden  castle  was  hastily  built.  It  was  expected 
that  Harold  would  soon  offer  battle ;  for  his  absence  in 
the  North  was  unknown  when  the  expedition  sailed. 
William  resolved  to  await  an  attack;  which  he  did  his 
utmost  to  provoke  by  wanton  havoc. 

Harold  reached  London  on  the  fifth  of  October ;  only  ten 
days  after  the  Battle  of  Stamford  Bridge,  and  a  week  after 
the  Norman  landing :  an  extraordinary  march  under  the 
circumstances.  He  waited  for  six  days  while  troops  came 
in  ;  hoping  also  for  the  northern  levies  which  the  two  Earls 
treacherously  kept  back.  Apart  from  them,  there  was 
no  lack  of  enthusiasm  and  patriotism.  Norman  tales  to 
the  contrary,  alleging  also  cowardice,  profanity,  and 
revelry  in  the  English  camp,  may  be  dismissed  as  abso- 
lute falsehoods ;  invented  for  an  obvious  purpose.  The 
actual  strength  of  the  army  with  which  Harold  marched 
from  London  is  not  known.  The  usual  guesses  and 
exaggerations  are  made  by  various  writers.  Some  Eng- 
lish Chroniclers  gently  censure  him  for  not  waiting 
longer,  until  others  had  time  to  join  his  standard. 
Nothing  is  more  easy  than  to  criticise  generalship.  On- 
lookers always  see  better  moves  in  a  game  of  chess. 
Arm-chair  politicians  and  able  editors  are  apt  to  pro- 
nounce dogmatic  judgment  upon  military  movements 
thousands  of  miles  away.  Harold  could  not  remain 
inactive  in  London  while  every  hour  brought  tidings 
of  what  his  people  in  Sussex  were  enduring  from  the 
brutality  of  the  invaders  who  were  ravaging  and  destroy- 


112  CONTEST  OF  RACES.  [chap,  vi 

ing  the  district.  Moreover,  so  far  from  being  precipitate 
and  reckless,  he  judged  that  he  had  a  force  adequate  for 
the  special  enterprise  which  he  contemplated.  He  was 
an  experienced  and  a  consummate  general,  and  the  event 
proved  that  his  plans  were  carefully  laid.  After  a  vigil 
in  and  fresh  gifts  to  his  church  at  Waltham,  he  set 
forth,  on  Wednesday,  October  the  eleventh,  to  encounter 
the  foe,  in  no  vaunting  spirit,  yet  strong  in  the  justice  of 
his  cause ;  encouraged  by  his  recent  victory,  and  reason- 
al^ly  expecting  that  by  a  bold  and  skilful  attack  he  might 
check  a  further  advance.  He  resolved  to  accept  the  chal- 
lenge of  battle  given  by  William,  but  to  do  so  on  ground 
chosen  by  himself.  Instead  of  directly  attacking  the 
Normans  in  their  intrenched  camp,  as  they  expected,  he, 
knowing  his  own  purpose,  and  with  the  eye  of  a  tactician, 
took  up  a  strong  and  almost  impregnable  post  on  a  spot 
of  high  ground,  then  known  as  Senlac,  about  seven  miles 
from  the  modern  town  of  Hastings.  There  he  awaited 
the  Normans;  and  there,  on  Saturday,  October  14,  1066, 
the  great  and  decisive  battle  was  fought.  The  precise 
spot  is  marked  by  Battle  Abbey,  which  William  after- 
wards caused  to  be  built.  The  English  called  the  struggle 
the  Battle  of  Senlac.  At  a  later  period  it  came  to  be 
known  by  the  present  name ;  Hastings  being  the  nearest 
place  of  note. 

Norman  writers  describe  the  scene  with  much  jubila- 
tion ;  but  their  accounts  must  be  read  with  reserve. 
They  cared  only  to  glorify  their  party,  while  depreciating 
and  misrepresenting  the  other  side.  The  battle  began  at 
nine  in  the  morning.  For  six  hours  the  English  defended 
themselves  bravely.  Again  and  again  their  assailants 
were  driven  back.  The  policy  of  Harold  was  for  his  men 
to  hold  their  ground  in  close  formation  ;  doggedly  resist- 
ing all  attempts  to  break  their  ranks.  Seeing  this,  William 
ordered  his  force  to  pretend  to  flee,  and  the  scheme 
drew  many  of  the  English  after  them,  in  spite  of  the 
strict  directions.  The  sham  flight  was  suddenly  stopped, 
and  the  Normans  turned  upon  their  pursuers,  who  were 
somewhat  disordered  and  exhausted.  Great  bravery  was 
shown  on  both  sides,  but  the  numbers  of  the  Normans 
gave  them  an  advantage.  They  pressed  on  towards  the 
spot  where  Harold's  standard  was  set  up,  and  where  he 


A.D.  I042-I056.]  BATTLE  OF  HASTINGS.  113 

was  fighting  on  foot  at  the  head  of  his  housecarles.  In 
one  of  these  hot  contests  he  was  slain.  A  device  adopted 
by  the  Normans  was  to  shoot  flights  of  arrows  into  the 
air.  One  of  these  arrows  in  its  fall  pierced  the  right  eye 
of  Harold ;  disabling  him  by  the  acute  agony.  His 
personal  followers  did  their  utmost  to  protect  him  ;  but 
in  the  hand-to-hand  encounter  he  was  overpowered  and 
stricken  down.  His  body  was  horribly  mutilated.  Four 
Norman  knightly  butchers  are  known  to  have  shared  in 
this  infamy.  One  of  them  was  the  brutal  Count  Eustache 
of  Boulogne,  whose  wanton  attack  upon  the  citizens  of 
Dover  led  to  the  exile  of  Godwine  and  Harold,  and  who 
now  glutted  upon  the  corpse  his  thirst  for  vengeance. 
The  mangled  remains  were  buried  beneath  a  cairn  of 
stones,  but  were  subsequently  removed  to  Waltham. 

After  Harold's  death,  the  English  bravely  fought  on 
until  the  day  waned ;  and  then,  all  who  could,  left  the 
fatal  field.  The  rank  and  prowess  of  South  and  Mid- 
England  perished  there.  Harold's  two  brothers,  Gyrth 
and  Leofwine,  with  many  other  leaders,  were  among  the 
slain.  Nor  did  the  conqueror  escape  without  paying  a 
heavy  price.  He  lost,  it  is  said,  more  than  fifteen  thou- 
sand men,  which  must  include  camp-followers ;  quarter 
being  neither  asked  nor  given,  and  no  captives  being 
taken.  All  the  Norman  historians  speak  of  the  valour 
of  the  English,  and  admit  that  victory  was  won  only  by 
great  efforts  on  the  part  of  the  stronger  force.  Dire  was 
the  dismay  in  the  country  when  the  result  of  the  battle 
was  known.  Though  the  loss  was  severe,  the  fortunes 
of  the  day  might  have  been  retrieved  if  Harold  had  sur- 
vived, or  if  another  great  noble  could  have  rallied  the 
people  around  him.  There  were  also  in  the  Northern 
districts  enough  armed  retainers  to  oppose  the  Normans. 
As  it  was,  William  did  not  for  five  years  obtain  control 
over  the  whole  country.  It  is  evident  that  many  of 
the  people  had  lost  ncnie  of  their  ancient  spirit.  Harold's 
brief  rule  showed  his  desire  to  bring  the  nation  up  to 
the  ideal  of  what  was  really  great  and  good.  Perhaps, 
for  the  sake  of  his  own  fame,  it  was  well  that  his  life 
ended  when  and  how  it  did.  England  needed  the  intro- 
duction of  new  and  strong  elements  before  the  national 
life  could  become  high,  noble,  and  vigorous.  The  Nor- 
10 


ir4  CONTEST  OF  RACES.  [chap.  vi. 

mans  supplied  such  qualities  as  the  power  of  organization, 
the  sense  of  law  and  method,  and  the  genius  for  enter- 
prise. 

Of  the  popular  attachment  to  Harold  there  can  be  no 
doubt.  Contemporaneous  evidence  is  conclusive ;  not- 
withstanding Norman  mendacity.  After  his  death,  no 
effort  was  spared  to  vilify  him  by  those  to  whom  his  name 
and  deeds  were  a  reproach.  All  their  allegations  may  be 
dismissed  as  absolute  fabrications.  True,  his  reign  endured 
only  for  nine  months  ;  and  these  were  full  of  troul)le  and 
perplexity.  Yet  his  memory  is  fragrant ;  and  his  renown 
rests  upon  the  long  and  able  rule,  as  Earl,  that  preceded 
the  brief  kingship.  Lord  Lytton  has  embodied  the  con- 
ception in  his  historical  romance  of  '  Harold.'  A  parallel 
exists  in  the  case  of  the  great  Protector,  Cromwell. 
Hated  and  traduced  for  generations  by  Court  sycophants, 
he,  too,  has  now  taken  his  rightful  place. 

This  terminates  what  may  be  fairly  described  as  the 
period  of  Inception;  yielding  to  a  series  of  Struggles 
for  Liberty. 


Period  II.— STRUGGLES. 


A.D.   1066-1216. 
Chapter. 

7, — Norman  Infusion  and  Feudalism. 


— King  and  Church. 

— Social  Glimpses. 

— Constitutional  and  Legal  Developments. 

— The  Church  or  the  State. 

— Regal  Tyranny  and  Exactions. 

— The  Great  Charter  of  Liberties. 


Ii6  NORMAN  INFUSION.  [chap.  vii. 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Norman  Infusion  and  Feudalism. 

A.D.  1066-1086. 

Various  writers  of  authority  have  pointed  out  that  the 
commonly-accepted  title  of  William  the  Conqueror  was 
not  used  until  some  time  after  his  death.  The  phrase  is 
scarcely  worth  contending  over,  save  for  the  fact  that 
it  is  usually  understood  as  meaning  what  never  took 
place.  Instead  of  England  being  subjugated,  in  the 
ordinary  sense  of  that  word,  it  absorbed  and  assimilated 
the  dominant  race.  It  is  the  more  important  to  keep 
this  in  view,  because,  in  the  Norman  Chronicles,  and  in 
the  legal  documents  of  the  time,  the  reign  of  Harold  is 
ignored,  or  is  treated  only  as  a  usurpation.  In  like 
manner,  the  Stuart  Restoration  of  1660  was  assumed,  by 
a  monstrous  legal  fiction  of  that  day,  to  be  the  continua- 
tion of  a  reign  beginning  in  1649,  ^"^  the  intervening 
Commonwealth  period  was  treated  as  non-existent.  In 
the  case  of  the  Normans,  the  fraud  was  twofold.  William 
assumed  the  character,  not  of  a  conqueror,  but  of  one 
merely  claiming  his  own,  as  the  lawful  successor  of  a  long 
line  of  kings,  and  as  chastising  those  who  resisted  his 
just  rights.  Yet  he  was  too  shrewd  to  suppose  that  the 
English  nation  would  at  once  submit  to  what  they 
regarded  as  foreign  rule.  Very  much  had  to  be  done 
ere  the  whole  of  the  country  was  subdued.  It  was  a 
slow  and  a  hard  task.  Successive  struggles  in  which  he 
engaged  were  really  wars  levied  by  a  foreign  prince 
against  a  people  who  fought  for  their  liberties.  There 
was  no  lack  of  proper  spirit  among  the  English  of  that 
day,  and  their  descendants  may  be  justly  proud  to  speak 
their  language,  to  dwell  in  their  land,  to  enjoy  their 
ancient  franchises,  and  to  be  ruled  to  a  great  extent  by 
their  laws. 

After  the  Battle  of  Hastings,  and  as  soon  as  his  troops 
had  recovered,  William  marched  to  Dover  ;  intending  to 
lay  siege  to  it.  The  place  was  yielded  through  treachery, 
and  given  over  to  pillage.  The  sacking  of  a  town  means 
violence,     murder,     robbery,     plunder,     destruction,     fire, 


A.D.  1066-1086.]   MURDER  AND  PILLAGE.  117 

brutality,  lust,  and  diabolical  wickedness  of  all  kinds. 
Such  scenes  have  occurred  within  living  memory.  They 
often  took  place  in  England  during  the  early  part  of  the 
reign  of  William  I.  His  followers  were  rough,  greedy, 
cruel  adventurers,  whom  he  could  not  restrain.  If  he 
had  tried,  they  would  have  turned  against  him.  Numbers 
went  back  to  their  respective  countries,  or  sallied  forth 
in  search  of  other  raids,  when  they  had  taken  enough 
booty,  or  when  they  became  weary  or  dissatisfied.  Not 
for  some  years  was  he  able  to  control  the  violence  of 
those  who  remained,  and  they  were  a  constant  trouble  to 
him.  Many  had  no  intention  of  permanently  settling  in 
England.  They  came  over  to  assist  him  for  a  time,  in 
hope  of  substantial  rewards,  and  they  wanted  to  return 
as  soon  as  possible.  Until  his  power  was  fixed,  their  aid 
could  not  be  dispensed  with.  In  order  to  retain  a  suf- 
ficient number,  he  made  costly  presents  out  of  the  spoils 
taken  in  battle,  out  of  property  seized  and  confiscated, 
and  out  of  heavy  imposts  which  the  English  were  com- 
pelled to  bear.  Nor  had  the  early  successes  been  won 
without  great  disaster  on  the  side  of  the  victors.  To  supply 
the  places  of  the  many  who  fell  in  battle  and  of  those  who 
re-crossed  the  Channel,  other  bravoes  and  mercenaries 
arrived  during  the  winter  of  1066  ;  for  the  news  of  good 
pay  and  of  probable  plunder  spread  far  and  wide,  among 
the  lairs  and  dens  of  these  human  wolves.  More  Normans, 
Flemings,  Poitevins,  Angevins,  Bretons,  and  others  as 
needy  and  as  greedy,  trooped  over.  Men  who  had  been 
poor  and  ignoble,  suddenly  became  rich  and  great.  Those 
who  came  only  for  a  time,  received  money,  jewels,  horses, 
and  arms  in  return  for  their  services.  Those  who  came 
to  stay,  had  manors,  villages,  and  towns  given  to  them, 
and  made  what  they  chose  by  extortion  and  oppression. 

From  Dover,  William  and  his  army  proceeded  to 
Canterbury,  where  sickness  detained  him  for  a  month. 
'I^hence  he  marched  towards  London  ;  burning,  destroy- 
ing, and  murdering.  As  the  citizens  gave  a  severe  check 
to  the  advanced  guard  in  Southwark,  and  as  it  was 
doubtful  whether  the  place  could  be  taken  without  great 
loss,  he  diverged  through  Surrey  and  Berkshire  to 
Wallingford,  where  he  crossed  the  Thames  and  went  to 
Berkhampstead.     The    object    was    to    surround    the    ciiy 


Ii8  NORMAN  INFUSION.  [chap.  vii. 

with  a  broad  belt  of  desolation.  He  knew  also  that  the 
Londoners  were  divided  among  themselves,  and  that  the 
city  contained  Norman  emissaries  and  conspirators,  besides 
traitors  who  had  been  bribed  to  admit  his  claims  and  to 
promote  his  designs.  The  two  Earls,  Morkere  and  Ead- 
wine,  had  tardily  arrived  there,  and  they  favoured  Eadgar 
/Etheling  as  the  heir  to  the  Crown.  He  was  chosen  in 
an  informal  Witan,  hurriedly  convened ;  but  does  not 
appear  to  have  been  crowned.  Most  of  the  citizens, 
while  prepared  and  eager  to  fight,  were  jealous  of  the 
power  of  the  two  Earls,  who  had  given  too  much  cause 
for  suspicion.  None  knew  to  whom  to  look  for  leader- 
ship. '  Meanwhile,  the  place  was  being  surrounded ;  sup- 
lies  were  cut  off;  and  tidings  came  of  the  brutal  doings 
of  the  foreigners.  The  object  was  to  arouse  terror.  As 
a  result,  the  principal  nobles,  clergy,  and  citizens  went 
separately  or  in  small  groups  to  Berkhampstead,  and 
made  submission  on  the  best  terms  chey  could.  Among 
them,  was  the  half-fledged  King  Eadgar,  whose  empty 
dignity  of  a  few  days  thus  terminated.  William  received 
tlie  deputations  graciously,  and  promised  his  favour,  tie 
was  invited,  in  some  unknown  fashion,  to  assume  the  title 
of  King,  and  to  enter  the  metropolis.  Before  doing  so, 
he  sent  a  number  of  his  people  to  build  a  strong  wooden 
fortress,  on  the  site  where  the  Tower  of  London  now 
stands.     When  built,  he  took  up  his  abode  in  it. 

The  coronation  was  fixed  for  the  Christmas  festival. 
It  took  place  at  Westminster ;  Ealdred,  the  Northern 
primate,  performing  the  rite  according  to  the  ancient 
usage.  During  its  progress,  the  Norman  soldiers  attacked 
the  people  outside,  and  the  adjacent  houses.  Under  the 
pretence — so  often  invented  in  similar  circumstances  by 
rampant  miUtaryism — that  there  had  been  a  threatened 
riot,  they  began  to  murder,  rob,  and  burn.  One  ex- 
planation is  that  the  immediate  occasion  was  the  shout 
of  the  multitude  when  they  replied  to  the  customary 
question,  whether  they  approved  of  the  new  monarch. 
The  shout  thus  raised  was  supposed  by  the  Normans  to 
forebode  an  attack.  Unfortunately,  however,  for  this 
theory,  their  conduct  in  all  parts  of  the  country  showed 
that  they  regarded  the  people  as  fair  game  for  assault, 
and    their  property  as    spoil    for  military   thieves.     Their 


A.D.  1066-1086.]  CHARTER  TO  LONDON.  119 

conduct  was  not  without  its  use,  in  inspiring  terror. 
Shortly  after  the  coronation,  a  searching  inquiry  was 
made  as  to  those  who  had  assisted  Harold,  and  their 
property  of  every  kind  was  confiscated.  In  return  for 
costly  gifts  made  by  the  citizens  of  London,  with  a  view 
to  secure  favour,  he  gave  them  a  quasi  Charter  in  the 
following  words  : — "  Learn  all  what  is  my  will.  I  fully 
consent  that  all  of  you  enjoy  your  national  laws  as  in  the 
days  of  King  Eadward.  Every  son  shall  inherit  from  his 
father  after  his  father's  death.  None  of  my  men  shall  do 
you  any  wrong."  The  original  of  this,  a  strip  of  parch- 
ment seven  inches  by  two,  is  still  preserved  among  the 
ancient  records  of  the  City  of  London  at  Guildhall.  The 
Charter  confers  no  corporate  privileges.  It  is  meagre 
and  vague  in  the  extreme.  The  chief  importance 
attaching  to  it  is  the  continuance  of  the  personal  rights 
which  existed  formerly. 

The  state  of  affairs  in  Normandy  compelled  William 
to  return  thither  for  a  time  in  March,  1067.  He  had  been 
in  England  barely  six  months,  and  he  merely  held  by 
force  of  arms  the  district  extending  from  Kent  to  the 
borders  of  Dorsetshire  and  Somerset,  with  Essex  and 
portions  of  Suffolk.  Even  this  was  not  wholly  subdued, 
but  was  kept  in  awe  by  bands  of  soldiers  and  by  wooden 
castles  hastily  built.  Devon  and  Cornwall  remained 
untouched,  as  did  the  great  Midland  and  Northern 
counties.  He  took  with  him  to  Normandy,  Eadgar 
.^^theling,  the  Earls  Eadwine  and  Morkere,  Archbishop 
Stigand,  and  other  nobles ;  to  prevent  their  heading  a 
rising  in  his  absence.  He  also  carried  away  great  treasure 
in  gold,  silver,  jewels,  and  embroidery,  in  addition  to 
what  had  been  already  divided  among  his  followers.  His 
half-brother,  Odo,  Bishop  of  Bayeux,  and  William  Fitz- 
Osbern,  created  respectively  Earls  of  Kent  and  of  Here- 
ford, were  left  as  Regents.  Their  harsh  rule  nearly 
lost  all  that  had  been  acquired.  In  order  to  amass  wealth 
for  themselves,  they  mercilessly  oppressed  the  districts 
loosely  held  by  the  Normans,  and  goaded  the  people 
into  a  resistance  that  caused  five  years  of  war,  and  hard- 
ship, and  misery.  The  English  would  not  tamely  submit 
to  injustice,  robbery,  and  insult.  They  attacked  small 
parties  of  their  tyrants;  and    the   spirit  aroused   was  so 


I20  NORMAN  INFUSION.  [chap.  vii. 

fierce  and  threatening  that  the  Regents  became  alarmed, 
and  sent  urgent  messages  to  William.  On  his  return  in 
December  he  marched  to  the  West  of  England  ;  partly, 
to  avenge  himself  on  those  who  had  asserted  tneir  rights 
against  the  cruelty  of  his  people ;  and,  partly,  to  extend 
his  authority  over  the  districts  which  had  not  yielded. 
He  prepared  for  that  struggle  which  was  to  fix  him  on 
the  throne,  for  he  was  not  the  man  to  shrink  from  any 
means,  however  harsh  and  cruel,  that  would  accomplish 
his  purposes. 

The  line  of  march  was  a  trail  of  woe.  Exeter  was 
besieged  for  eighteen  days,  and  was  only  captured  by 
treachery.  As  usual,  there  was  wanton  destruction  of 
houses  and  of  property  that  could  not  be  carried  away, 
and  a  wanton  butchery  of  those  who  had  defended  their 
rights.  A  castle  was  built  to  overawe  the  city.  During 
its  erection,  the  army  marched  into  Cornwall  ;  ruthlessly 
trampling  down  and  stamping  out  all  opposition.  The 
usual  policy  of  confiscation  was  pursued  ;  opening  up 
new  fields  for  rewarding  the  services  of  foreigners.  Proof 
of  the  havoc  committed  incidentally  appears  in  many 
places  in  Domesday  Book ;  compiled  less  than  twenty 
years  later.  Thus,  at  Dorchester,  one  hundred  and 
twenty-eight  houses  out  of  one  hundred  and  seventy-two, 
were  destroyed,  either  by  fire  or  by  being  pulled  down  ; 
at  Wareham,  a  hundred  and  fifty  out  of  two  hundred  and 
eighty-five ;  at  Shaftesbury,  eighty  out  of  two  hundred 
and  fifty-seven.  In  subsequent  raids,  as  at  Ipswich,  of 
five  hundred  and  twenty-eight  houses,  more  than  three- 
fifths  were  wasted.  Thetford  had  two  hundred  and 
twenty-four  empty  or  desolated  houses.  Similar  pitiful 
records  appear  of  many  other  towns.  Fire,  pillage,  and 
sword  made  short  work  of  resistance.  Where  none  was 
attempted,  the  people  seldom  escaped.  The  object  was 
to  intimidate  and  to  subdue.  No  necessity  existed  for 
such  a  reign  of  terror  in  Kent.  The  flower  of  its  man- 
hood had  fallen  with  Harold,  and  the  remainder  had 
become  a  prey  to  the  rapacity  of  Bishop  Odo.  The 
whole  of  that  rich  county  lay  ready  for  confiscation. 
Surrey  and  Sussex  were  in  a  plight  nearly  as  helpless. 
Domesday  Book  shows  that  scarcely  any  English  tenants 
remained  in  those  districts. 


A.D.  io66-io86.]  TERRORISM.  12I 

The  turn  of  the  North  of  England  was  now  to  come. 
Earl  Eadwine  had  been  promised  WilHam's  daughter 
in  marriage,  as  a  reward  for  his  submission.  This 
promise  was  not  kept ;  and  in  the  Summer  of  1068, 
he  withdrew  to  Northumbria  with  Earl  Morkere ;  re- 
solved, too  late,  to  oppose  the  extension  of  Norman  rule. 
The  Midland  districts  had  not  yet  been  subdued,  and 
not  a  single  Norman  had  penetrated  beyond  the  Humber. 
Crowds  flocked  to  the  standard  of  the  two  Earls.  Patriots 
from  the  South  also  went  to  join  in  the  struggle.  William 
collected  his  army,  and  marched  to  Oxford  ;  capturing  it 
after  a  brave  defence,  and  punishing  with  fire  and  murder 
the  bold  resistance  of  the  inhabitants.  Of  seven  hundred 
and  twenty  houses,  more  than  one-half  were  burned. 
Leaving  a  garrison,  he  proceeded  to  Warwick,  and 
thence  to  Leicester.  Both  places  were  destroyed.  Derby 
and  Nottingham  were  captured  and  devastated.  He 
then  marched  Northwards,  and  fought  a  battle  with  the 
English  at  a  spot  where  the  Ouse  joins  the  Humber. 
After  a  hard  contest,  he  won  the  day  \  not  without  great 
losses.  The  English  withdrew  to  York ;  but  that  city 
was  carried  by  assault.  Men,  women,  and  children  were 
slain  without  mercy.  The  houses  were  stripped  and 
fired.  The  customary  castle  was  built,  and  another  one 
subsequently.  The  services  of  the  English  were  always 
largely  impressed  by  force  and  threats  in  rearing  these 
structures.  Every  commanding  point  was  occupied  by 
a  lofty  and  massive  citadel,  to  overawe  the  district  and  to 
protect  the  garrison.  Of  the  people  who  escaped  during 
this  marauding  and  murdering  expedition,  many  fled  to 
Scotland,  where  they  were  welcomed  by  Malcolm  the 
Third.  Others  retired  into  the  dense  woods  and  forests 
of  the  Northern  and  Midland  counties,  or  into  the  fens 
of  Lincolnshire  and  Cambridgeshire. 

A  garrison  of  five  hundred  picked  men-at-arms,  with 
numerous  attendants,  was  left  at  York,  while  William 
returned  towards  Lincoln.  This  place,  from  its  elevated 
position,  was  then  one  of  tne  mo-t  important  in  the 
country.  It  contained  eleven  hundred  and  fifty  inhabited 
houses.  The  people  were  mostly  of  Danish  descent,  and 
had  always  maintained  a  virtual  independence.  The 
city    was    captured  j    a    hundred     and     sixty-six    houses 


t22  NORMAN  INFUSION.  [chap.  vil. 

were  pulled  down  or  burned,  and  a  strong  fortress  was 
raised.  Hostages  were  carried  away  to  ensure  good 
behaviour,  and  to  prevent  a  possible  conspiracy  with  the 
kindred  Danes  over  the  sea.  The  other  men  of  the 
Danelagh,  fearing  that  their  part  of  the  country  would 
soon  be  assailed,  sent  to  their  friends  in  Denmark  ;  by 
whom  an  army  was  despatched  on  board  two  hundred 
and  forty  vessels.  After  attacking  various  parts  of  the 
Eastern  coasts,  a  landing  was  effected  in  the  Ilumber,  in 
September,  1069.  There  they  were  joined  by  numerous 
English  fugitives.  York  was  attacked  ;  its  castles  taken 
and  pulled  down ;  and  three  thousand  Normans  were 
slain.  Twelve  hundred  who  had  gone  to  Durham  were 
repulsed,  and  most  of  them  were  killed.  If  the  Danes 
and  the  English  had  marched  Southwards,  the  entire 
population  would  probably  have  risen ;  but,  satisfied  with 
past  success,  they  went  into  winter  quarters,  giving 
William  time  to  mature  his  plans.  The  old  curse  of 
England  still  prevailed  ;  in  divided  interests.  The  Danes 
thought  that  Swegen,  son  of  Cnut,  should  be  the  future 
ruler.  The  English  were  in  favour  of  Eadgar  /Etheling. 
But  there  was  no  competent  leader,  and  resistance 
proved  abortive.  The  two  Earls,  cravens  and  traitors  by 
nature,  made  their  peace  once  more  with  William,  but 
in  107  r,  after  other  vacillations,  they  finally  were  routed, 
and  Eadwine  was  slain. 

William's  immediate  policy  was  to  bribe  the  Danes  to 
depart.  Then  he  set  out  from  the  West  of  England,  at 
the  head  of  a  large  body  of  his  best  soldiers,  and  after 
sternly  suppressing  local  outbreaks  in  Staffordshire, 
arrived  at  York.  The  castles  were  reconstructed ;  and 
all  the  English  who  could  be  found  in  the  neighbour- 
hood had  to  labour  for  many  weary  weeks  at  the 
buildings.  While  this  was  being  done,  the  King  and 
part  of  his  army  entered  upon  a  systematic  course  of 
vengeance  in  cold  blood.  It  is  impossible  to  acquit  him 
of  a  deliberate  resolve  to  root  out  the  people  who  had 
given  him  so  much  trouble  by  their  bravery  and 
patriotism.  He  sent  troops  all  over  the  wide  district 
between  York  and  Durham,  with  orders  to  spare  neither 
man  nor  beast,  and  to  destroy  houses,  implements,  food, 
and  everything  that  could  not  be  carried  away.     For  nearly 


A.D.  io66-io86.]  HEREWARD.  123 

a  century,  not  a  patch  of  cultivated  ground  was  to  be 
seen  in  the  whole  region.  It  was  a  literal  wilderness- 
strewn  with  blackened  ruins.  In  the  entries  in  Domes, 
day,  the  word  "  waste  "  continually  occurs  in  the  descrip- 
tion of  what  is  now  North  Yorkshire ;  a  mute  testimony 
to  the  ruthless  raid. 

More  than  orTe  hundred  thousand  persons  are  said  to 
have  perished,  either  by  the  sword  or  by  famine  ;  pro- 
bably, like  other  definite  statements  of  numbers,  an 
exaggerated  estimate,  but  the  destruction  was  certainly 
great,  terrible,  and  wanton.  This  black  deed  occupied 
the  remainder  of  the  fine  season  of  1070.  Christmas  was 
spent  in  York  ;  and  in  the  following  March  William  led 
his  troops,  amidst  storms  of  snow,  sleet,  and  hail,  to  the 
district  between  the  Tyne  and  the  Tees,  which  was 
harried  in  like  manner.  He  next  forced  his  way  over 
the  wild,  hilly  region  to  Chester,  which  he  took,  after 
hard  fighting ;  and,  as  usual,  built  a  fortress.  The  city 
and  the  country  adjacent  were  laid  waste.  Thence  he 
marched  to  Stafford,  and  on  to  Salisbury,  where  he  sent 
away  those  of  his  mercenaries  who  had  tired  of  the  work 
of  butchery,  or  who  had  gleaned  sufficient  spoil  ;  and 
went  to  his  favourite  residence  at  ^^'inchester.  One  of 
the  measures  adopted  when  many. Normans  fell  victims 
to  popular  hatred  and  vengeance  on  account  of  their 
brutalities,  was  an  order  that  any  man  found  killed  was 
to  be  regarded  as  a  Norman,  and  the  Hundred  was  made 
liable  for  a  heavy  fine,  unless  it  could  be  shown  that  the 
person  slain  was  an  Englishman ;  the  burden  of  proof 
being  cast  upon  the  locality. 

The  last  resistance  took  place  in  the  fen  districts  of 
Cambridgeshire  and  Lincolnshire.  In  those  regions  of 
bogs,  marshes,  and  meres,  were  the  Isles  of  Ely  and  of 
Thorney,  where,  as  at  Peterborough  and  at  Croyland, 
wealthy  abbeys  had  been  long  founded.  The  monks, 
being  Saxons,  favoured  the  patriots.  With  them  the 
descendants  of  the  old  Danish  settlers  fully  sympathised. 
To  this  swampy  region  many  fled  from  other  parts,  so 
that  it  came  to  be  a  camp  of  refuge  where  the  final 
stand  was  made  for  liberty.  Their  leader  was  Hereward, 
England's  Darling,  as  he  was  termed;  a  somewhat 
legendary    but    beloved   hero,    who:;e    name    and   deeds 


124  NORMAN  INFUSION.  [chap.  vii. 

were  kept  alive  in  popular  ballads  and  traditions,  sung 
and  told  for  many  a  year.  Charles  Mackay  has  made 
them  the  theme  of  his  '  Camp  of  Refuge,'  and  Charles 
Kingsley  in  '  Hereward  the  Wake.'  All  the  attacks 
made  by  the  Normans  upon  the  numerous  bands  of 
fugitives  in  the  fens  proved  fruitless  for  more  than  two 
years.  There  was  no  scarcity  of  food,  for  the  rivers  and 
meres  gave  an  inexhaustible  supply  of  fish,  and  wild  fowl 
■were  caught  in  abundance.  Other  things  were  easily 
procured  in  the  surrounding  country  from  secret  friends. 
Not  until  William  had  lost  great  numbers  of  men,  and 
engaged  in  many  weary  and  dangerous  conflicts,  was  he 
able  to  subdue  the  Last  of  the  English  and  his  brave 
followers.  They  saw  that  further  resistance  was  hope- 
less, and  either  escaped  abroad  or  made  their  peace  with 
him  before  the  close  of  107 1.  Thus,  after  five  years  of 
carnage,  incendiarism,  confiscation,  and  ruthless  brutality, 
the  Norman  rule  was  set  up  over  nearly  the  whole  of  the 
dominion  of  the  old  English  kings.  The  Welsh  long 
defied  the  Norman  power  amid  their  mountain  fastnesses. 
The  country  was  kept  quiet  by  military  force.  What 
was  said  by  Tacitus,  and  was  also  said  of  a  modern 
Russian  despot  in  his  treatment  of  Poland,  was  true  in 
this  instance, — "  He  made  a  desert,  and  called  it  peace." 

The  various  outbreaks  had  involved  most  of  the 
owners  of  land,  and  forfeiture  was  carried  out  against 
them  with  the  utmost  rigour.  Their  estates  and 
property  were  either  retained  for  the  King's  use,  or 
bestowed  upon  his  insatiable  follovvers.  Mere  suspicion 
was  enough.  It  was  a  crime  in  an  Englishman  to  be 
rich,  or  noble,  or  powerful.  This  policy  caused  a  total 
change  in  the  ownership  of  land.  Ancient  and  honourable 
English  families  were  brought  to  beggary ;  were  treated 
with  contempt  and  insolence ;  and  had  the  mortification 
of  seeing  their  houses  and  manors  taken  by  Normans  of 
mean  station,  and  their  sisters  and  daughters  forced  to 
marry  persons  whom  they  despised.  In  the  division  of 
the  spoil,  the  interests  of  the  Crown  were  not  forgotten. 
The  King  retained  fourteen  hundred  and  twenty-two 
manors,  besides  a  number  of  forests,  chases,  farms, 
and  houses  in  all  parts  of  the  country.  He  gave  liber- 
ally, but  with  cheap  magnanimity,  as  is  the  custom  w.ib 


A.D.  1066-1086.]  THE  SPOIL.  125 

regal  spoliators,  to  those  who  came  with  him  across  the 
sea ;  but  took  care  to  diffuse  their  holdings  ;  as 
Cleisthenes  scattered  the  demes  of  the  Athenian  tribes. 
His  sister's  son,  Hugh  d'Avranches,  received  the  whole 
county  of  Chester,  with  the  title  of  Earl,  and  large 
properties  elsewhere.  By  his  tyranny  and  cruelty,  this 
man  earned  for  himself  the  opprobrious  epithet  of  Hugh 
the  Wolf.  Robert,  Earl  of  Montaigne,  half-brother  to 
\\'illiam,  received  nine  hundred  and  seventy-three 
manors.  Another  half-brother,  Bishop  Odo,  a  militant 
prelate,  more  at  home  in  the  battle-field  than  in  the 
church,  had  four  hundred  and  thirty-nine.  All  the 
principal  leaders  were  similarly  rewarded  ;  and  thus  the 
fair  realm  of  England  was  overrun  and  partitioned. 

The  actual  number  of  Normans  who  settled  in  this 
country  is  only  known  from  the  record  in  Domesday 
Book,  which  shows  that  the  commonly  received  estimate 
is  inaccurate.  The  greater  barons  and  the  courtiers  were 
Normans  ;  but  troops  of  their  associates  had  re-crossed 
the  sea  with  the  wages  of  iniquity  and  the  spoils  they 
had  gained.  Of  the  inferior  barons  and  knights  who 
remained,  many,  if  not  most,  peaceably  settled  down, 
marrying  English  wives.  Long  before  the  close  of  the 
twelfth  century  their  descendants  of  the  second  and  third 
generations  showed  themselves  to  be  as  patriotic  as  the 
original  English.  John  of  Brompton  recites,  in  con- 
temptuous fashion,  in  his  Chronicle,  the  appellations  of 
many  who  crossed  over  with  William  the  Vigorous,  and 
who  bore  only  the  names  of  Continental  towns  and 
districts.  Defoe's  trenchant  satire  of  '  The  True-Born 
Englishman,'  making  allowance  for  inevitable  caricature, 
is  no  fancy  picture  of  the  rabble  rout  that  attended 
the  men-at-arms.  The  roll  of  Battle  Abbey  contains 
fantastic  descriptive  names  ;  as  Trousselot,  Troussebout, 
Longue  Epee,  CEil-de-boeuf,  and  Front-de-boeuf.  It  was 
supposed  to  be  an  authentic  record  of  those  who  came 
over  from  Normandy.  It  is  now  known  to  have  been 
repeatedly  enlarged  in  later  times,  in  order  to  gratify  the 
vanity  of  those  who  wished  to  date  back  their  ancestry. 
No  renown,  however,  can  possibly  attach  to  descent  from 
the  original  banditti  who  came  like  buzzards  eager  for 
their  prey. 


126  NORMAN  INFUSION.  [chap.  vii. 

The  common  boastfulness  of  Norman  descent  has  nearly 
died  out ;  excepting  among  the  vulgar  newly-enriched 
and  ennobled.  It  never  was  true.  The  original  stock 
soon  became  extinct ;  leaving  no  direct  representatives. 
Comparatively  few  in  number,  they  were,  like  every 
military  aristocracy,  prone  to  decay.  The  Nemesis  that 
tracks  murder,  avarice,  cruelty,  and  every  species  of 
rviong-doing,  followed  them  inexorably.  Their  sons 
perished  in  rebellion  and  civil  wars,  or  made  childless 
marriages  for  the  increase  of  inheritance,  which  passed 
to  remote  heirs  or  was  escheated  to  the  Crown.  The 
Norman  names  borne  in  the  later  Middle  Ages  were 
a  second  crop,  with  a  large  English  infusion.  Of  six 
hundred  titled  families  now  existing,  only  five  go  back 
without  a  break  and  in  the  male  line  to  the  fourteenth 
century.  Among  the  untitled  landed  gentry,  owning 
three  thousand  acres  or  more,  only  eight  can  trace 
ancestry  to  those  who  owned  as  much  in  the  time  of 
Elizabeth.  The  oldest  dukedom  is  that  of  Norfolk, 
ostensibly  dating  from  1483  ;  but  there  was  a  suspension 
of  the  title  by  the  attainder  of  its  sohtary  holder  under 
Henry  VIIL,  and  Elizabeth  refused  to  revive  it.  For 
the  greater  part  of  her  reign  there  was  no  duke  in 
England.  Nor  did  the  dignity  ever  exist  in  this 
country  in  the  earlier  Continental  sense.  The  Black 
Prince  was  the  first  to  bear  the  nominal  title,  in  1335, 
and  down  to  the  time  of  Henry  VI.  it  was  confined  to 
the  reigning  family.  The  oldest  earldom  is  that  of 
Shrewsbury  ;  conferred  in  1442.  The  premier  marquisate 
is  Winchester;  in  1551.  From  a  year  earlier  dates  the 
origin  of  the  title  of  Viscount  Hereford.  Five  existing 
baronies  date  back  to  the  thirteenth  century ;  de  Ros, 
Hastings,  and  le  Despenser,  from  1264;  Mowbray,  from 
1281  ;  and  de  Clifford,  from  1299.  Only  eight  others 
have  their  origin  in  the  next  century.  Of  living  English 
peers,  only  thirty-two,  of  all  degrees,  trace  their  titles  to 
a  date  prior  to  1600. 

Out  of  all  the  sufferings,  the  struggles,  and  the  WTongs 
above  recited  there  came,  in  the  end,  much  that  aided 
the  future  growth  of  England.  While  the  strife  lasted, 
the   misery   and    the    injustice   were    acute ;    and    it    is 


A.D.  io66-io86.]     FUSION  OF  RACES.  127 

impossible  to  avoid  pronouncing  a  severe  judgment  on 
their  author.  Yet  it  must  be  remembered  that  England 
at  that  time  had  probably  about  one  million  of  in- 
habitants, and  it  was  not  possible  for  these  to  be  wholly 
rooted  out,  or  greatly  and  permanently  changed  by  the 
sixty  thousand  Normans  and  others  who  are  said  to  have 
come  over  during  the  Conquest  and  shortly  afterwards ; 
even  if  most  of  them  remained.  The  turbid  Rhone 
pours  into  and  passes  through  the  Lake  of  Geneva  ;  the 
stream  remaining  distinct  in  its  course,  ar.d  not  mingling 
with  the  limpid  blue  waters  of  the  Lake.  Unlike  this, 
the  Normans  blended  with  and  became  an  essential  Dart 
of  the  English  stream ;  so  that  in  the  course  ot  a  few 
generation;  it  was  impossible  to  distinguish  bftween 
them  Consentaneously,  as  Mr.  Freeman  points  out, 
there  was  a  gradual  commixture  of  institutions,  laws,  and 
methods  of  procedure.  The  orderly  strength,  the  w.der 
scope,  and  the  greater  adaptation  of  the  Norman  mecha- 
nism of  government  were  added  to  the  former  local  and 
provincial  organism.  The  Englishman  had  been  isolated 
from  other  peoples.  His  ideas  and  sympathies  were 
restricted.  There  is  a  measure  of  truth  in  Carlyle's 
sententious  comment,  quoted  before,  that  the  pot-bellied 
equanimity  of  the  Saxon  needed  the  drilling  and  dis- 
cipline of  a  century  of  Norman  tyranny. 

It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  for  a  lengthened  period 
a  broadly  defined  line  of  distinction  between  the  two 
races  was  recognised  on  both  sides.  Sir  Walter  Scott  is 
largely  responsible,  by  his  romance  of  '  Ivanhoe,'  for  this 
notion,  which  is  contrary  to  all  known  testimony. 
Thierry  perpetuated  it  in  his  work  on  the  Norman 
Conquest ;  which  is  also  largely  romantic  in  its  details, 
and  unphilosophical  in  its  general  treatment.  Even  such 
an  author  as  Gneist  is  not  free  from  this  historical  heresy. 
The  influence  of  romance-writers  and  of  historical 
novelists  is  traced  in  the  eightieth  Chapter.  It  is  certain, 
and  it  is  needful  to  repeat,  that  before  the  close  of  the 
twelfth  century  an  actual  thougli  silent  fusion  was  taking 
place  between  the  people  of  Old-English  descent  and 
those  of  Norman  descent.  All  of  them  had  come  to 
regard  themselves  as  English.  The  process  is  not  noted 
in  the  records  of  the  time,  because  it  was  gradual  3  but 


128  NORMAN  INFUSION.  [chap.  vii. 

the  results  are  visible  and  abiding.  A  mutual  education 
was  being  carried  on  by  means  of  public,  commercial,  and 
social  affairs ;  and  by  the  struggles  waged  with  rulers 
who  were  foreign  to  both  English  and  Normans.  Time 
smoothed  down  the  asperities  between  the  two  branches 
of  the  same  parent  stock.  Before  the  death  of  Stephen, 
only  eighty-eight  years  after  the  Battle  of  Hastings,  all 
distinctions  had  practically  ceased.  The  wall  of  separation 
was  not  only  broken  down,  but  was  being  carried  away. 

It  is  impossible,  therefore,  to  draw  a  rigid  and  arbitrary 
line,  and  to  say  with  precision  that  certain  institutions 
and  usages  were  Norman,  and  that  others  were  English. 
Some  are  known  to  be  direct  importations,  but  others 
were  gradually  altered  or  enlarged  to  meet  new  condi- 
tions. Authorities  differ;  and,  it  must  be  added,  con- 
stitutional writers  do  not  always  discriminate  between 
ascertained  facts  and  statements  more  or  less  conjectural  : 
or  between  the  former  and  inferences  or  theories  derived 
therefrom.  It  was  a  time  of  growth  and  transition. 
The  continuity  of  the  national  assemblies  remained 
unbroken.  William  I.  sought  to  perpetuate  ancient 
customs,  and  he  retained  many  of  the  ancient  Courts 
of  Justice ;  both  being  modified,  in  some  respects,  under 
pressure  of  circumstances.  Monarchical  absolutism 
aroused  a  spirit  of  freedom  which  might  have  remained 
dormant  under  a  milder  rule.  When  the  day  of  awaken- 
ing came,  the  natives  found  worthy  comrades  and  able 
leaders  in  the  descendants  of  the  aliens  among  whom 
their  ancestral  lands  had  been  divided,  and  whose  sym- 
pathies and  aspirations  were  as  truly  English  as  those 
of  the  sons  of  the  soil.  Gradually  there  arose  also  in  the 
foreign  settlers  and  their  children  a  spirit  of  nationality 
and  a  love  for  the  land  of  their  adoption.  The  con- 
quered gave  laws  to  the  conquerors,  as  Seneca  remarked 
of  the  Jews  in  Rome.  Two  peoples,  sprung  from  the 
same  original  stock,  were  amalgamated.  From  this 
union,  with  subsequent  importations,  sprang  the  England 
and  the  English  of  the  present  day. 

No  proof  exists  of  what  Hume  and  other  writers  have 
alleged,  that  ^^'illiam  tried  to  supplant  the  native  speech, 
and  to  compel  the  use  of  Norman-French.  No  formal 
attempt  of  the  kind  was  made;  nor  was  it  practicable; 


A.D.  io66-io86.]       COMMON  ERRORS.  129 

but  a  natural  and  gradual  change  was  effected  in  the 
course  of  years.  William  himself  tried  to  acquire  the 
English  tongue  ;  and,  if  he  failed,  it  was  not  for  lack  of 
will  and  of  application.  French  continued  to  be  the 
language  of  the  Court,  as  Latin  was  used  in  the  law,  in 
literature,  and  in  the  ritual  of  the  Church.  Most  of  the 
writs  and  other  legal  acts  of  the  first  Norman  monarch 
are  in  Latin.  A  few  are  in  English ;  but  not  one  is 
French.  The  Norman  and  the  early  Plantagenet  kings 
could  not  speak  any  other  tongue  than  their  own,  and 
this  came  into  official  use  for  a  time  But  English, 
though  deprived  of  its  ancient  inflections,  formed  the 
basis  of  popular  speech.  All  the  words  in  common  use 
at  the  present  day  are  derived  from  it.  The  French 
element  was  mainly  infused  at  a  later  period,  in  the  time 
of  Henry  III.  and  the  Edwards  ;  partly  under  the  influ- 
ence of  French  fashions  and  of  the  prolonged  wars  with 
France.  Another  current  notion  must  be  abandoned, 
for  lack  of  evidence,  viz.,  that  William  systematically  set 
aside  the  law  of  England  for  that  of  Normandy.  No 
distinctive  code  is  in  existence,  or  is  spoken  of  by  con- 
temporary historians.  There  were  modifications  and 
changes,  as  will  presently  appear ;  but  no  intentional 
and  sweeping  supersession.  Another  error  is  sometimes 
made  by  asserting  that  he  intended  to  degrade  the 
English  by  ordering  all  fires  to  be  extinguished  at  eight 
o'clock  in  the  evening,  when  the  Curfew-bell  —  from 
couvre-feu,  or  "  cover-fire "  —  was  rung.  This  was  a 
common  sanitary  rule  on  the  Continent  for  three  cen- 
turies, and  was  needful  at  a  time  when  houses  were 
built  mostly  of  wood,  and  when  destructive  fires  were  too 
common.  In  many  English  parishes,  the  custom  of 
ringing  the  Curfew-bell  is  still  continued,  though  the 
original  significance  has  long  been  lost,  and  few  persons 
are  aware  that  the  passing  bell  was  originally  tolled  at 
death  to  drive  away  evil  spirits. 

William  also  constituted  the  Cinque  Ports — Sandwich, 
Dover,  Hythe,  Romney,  and  Hastings — into  a  jurisdiction 
separate  from  the  counties  of  Kent  and  Sussex,  in  ordei 
that  the  resources  of  those  seaports  might  be  wielded 
with  greater  vigour  for  the  defence  of  the  coasts  and  for 
purposes  of  transit  to  his  Continental  possessions.     The 


130  NORMAN  INFUSION.  [chap.  vii. 

warden  or  guardian  exercised  civil,  military,  and  naval 
jurisdiction,  and  certain  privileges  were  accorded  to  the 
towns  in  return  for  services  rendered.  Winchelsea  and 
Rye  were  subsequently  added ;  and  subordinate  towns 
and  ports  were  attached,  under  the  name  of  "  members.'' 
By  the  time  of  Edward  I.,  the  Cinque  Ports  were 
required  to  provide  no  fewer  than  fifty-seven  ships, 
equipped  and  manned  at  their  own  cost,  for  fifteen  days. 
A  custom  was  connived  at  of  their  making  raids  across 
the  Channel  for  purposes  which  cannot  be  distinguished 
from  piracy.  Prior  to  the  Revolution  of  1688,  the  Lord 
Warden  nominated  the  Parliamentary  representatives  of 
the  Cinque  Ports,  or  barons,  as  they  were  termed.  By 
the  Reform  Bill  of  1832  the  number  was  reduced  from 
sixteen  to  eight,  and  it  has  since  been  still  further 
diminished  to  three.  The  Municipal  Reform  Act  of 
1835  broke  up  the  ancient  organization  of  the  ports,  and 
assimilated  them  to  other  corporations ;  and  the  Lord 
Warden's  jurisdiction  in  civil  suits  was  abolished  in 
1856,  so  that  his  office,  with  the  functions  of  the  Courts 
of  Stepway,  Brotherhood,  and  Guestling,  is  little  more 
than  titular. 

The  real  objections  to  the  rule  of  the  first  Norman  lay, 
partly  in  his  severity,  but,  still  more,  in  his  selfishness 
and  avarice.  He  revived  the  old  tax  of  the  Danegeld, 
though  the  cause  for  it,  in  the  incursions  of  the  North- 
men, no  longer  existed.  He  became  more  grasping  as 
he  advanced  in  life,  and  imposed  heavier  taxes.  The 
bitter  feeling  thus  aroused  was  intensified  by  the  forma- 
tion of  a  vast  deer-park  or  chase  in  the  South  of  England ; 
in  addition  to  many  great  forests  already  existing.  The 
New  Forest,  as  it  was  termed,  covered  a  space  of  thirty 
miles  between  Salisbury  and  the  Sea.  The  district, 
before  it  was  made  into  woodland,  contained  more  than 
sixty  parishes.  He  broke  them  up ;  turning  out  the 
people  and  demolishing  their  houses,  and  even  the 
churches,  without  paying  for  the  damage.  The  religious 
sentiment  of  that  age  did  not  fail  to  note,  as  signs  of 
Divine  anger,  that  in  this  same  New  Forest  two  of  the 
King's  sons  and  a  grandson  met  with  violent  deaths. 
Severe  forest  laws,  far  more  stringent  than  those 
initiated  by  Cnut,  were  made  against  both   English  and 


A.D.  io66-io86.]  FOREST  LAWS.  131 

Normans.  The  latter  only  were  permitted  to  hunt 
within  the  royal  domains  as  a  matter  of  great  favour. 
Those  residing  on  the  borders  were  not  allowed  to  keep 
dogs,  unless  a  claw  of  the  right  fore-foot  was  cut  off,  to 
hinder  tliem  from  running.  As  to  the  English,  it  was 
ordered  that  whoever  killed  a  stag  or  a  hind  should  lose 
his  eyesight.  Even  the  hares  were  rigidly  guarded. 
Hitherto,  hunting  had  been  partly  a  necessity,  and  partly 
a  recreation ;  followed  by  nearly  all  classes.  It  was  a  neces- 
sity, as  directed  to  the  extermination  of  such  predatory 
animals  as  wolves  and  wild  boars,  and  as  one  means  of 
obtaining  food.  It  was  a  recreation,  as  a  matter  of  sport 
in  which  all  might  indulge.  With  William  I.,  it  became 
a  business,  a  passion,  and  a  monopoly.  His  prede- 
cessors engaged  in  it  occasionally,  as  a  relief  from  other 
and  graver  pursuits.  He  made  it  a  chief  object  of  life, 
and  was  enthusiastically  addicted  to  hunting,  for  its  own 
sake.  The  writer  of  the  Saxon  Chronicle  says  plain- 
tively,— "  He  loved  the  tall  stags  as  though  he  had  been 
their  father."  Nor  was  he  content  to  traverse  the  vast 
uncleared  lands  where  wild  animals  abounded.  He 
seized  what  suited  him,  without  compensation  ;  heedless 
of  the  misery  and  wrong  thereby  inflicted.  A  fertile  and 
thriving  region  became  a  wilderness  ;  wantonly  rendered 
so  by  his  brutality  and  selfishness.  This,  more  than 
anything  else,  made  him  hated.  Chroniclers  of  both 
races  describe  the  universal  feeling  of  resentment.  His 
ruthless  harrying  of  Yorkshire  and  Northumberland,  his 
forfeitures  of  property,  and  his  stern  exactions  in  divers 
ways,  were  bad  enough ;  but  this  act  transcended  all. 

For  nearly  a  century  there  were  loud  and  growing  com- 
plaints of  the  harsh  administration  of  the  Forest  Laws. 
Their  jurisdiction  was  outside  the  common  law.  They 
had  their  own  officials  and  their  special  customs.  The 
sole  object  was  to  protect  game  of  all  kinds,  for  the 
exclusive  use  of  the  King.  The  chief  functionaries 
appointed  by  him  were  independent  of  any  other  con- 
trol. They  held  their  own  courts,  and  enforced  their 
decisions  in  rough  and  arbitrary  fashion.  Their 
intolerance,  rapacity,  and  cruelty  made  them  hated 
by  the  people ;  but  every  act  of  resistance  was  sternly 
put  down.     Additions  were  made  to  these  royal  chajcsi 


132  NORMAN  INFUSION.  [chap.  vii. 

by  successive  monarchs  until  the  time  of  Stephen.  Even 
Henry  I.,  anxious  though  he  was  to  concihate  the  people, 
would  not  surrender  any  of  the  forests  made  by  h  s 
father  and  his  brother.  Glimpses  and  half-articulate 
moans  of  the  sufferers  under  this  atrocious  system  are 
caught  or  heard  here  and  there  in  the  Chronicles  ;  but 
the  full  tale  of  woe,  wretchedness,  and  injustice  can  only 
be  conjectured.  Vindictive  and  even  diabolical  punish- 
ments were  imposed.  Among  the  most  common  were 
the  loss  of  a  hand  or  a  foot,  and  sometimes  of  both  ; 
cutting  off  the  nose  or  one  or  both  ears ;  plucking  out 
the  eyes,  or  depriving  them  of  sight  by  heated  metal ; 
castration,  hanging,  and  boiling  alive.  These  methods 
were  not  rare.  Numberless  instances  are  given,  with 
revolting  minuteness,  which  it  is  impossible  to  translate 
out  of  the  Latin  originals.  A  dead  body  swinging  on  a 
tree  on  the  forest  borders,  or  some  dismembered  and  dis- 
figured wretch  doomed  to  eke  out  a  livelihood  by  charity, 
was  a  frequent  sight.  But  many  more  retired,  like  rats 
into  their  holes,  to  perish  and  be  forgotten.  The  spirit 
that  prompted  these  brutal  Forest  Laws  is  far  from  being 
extinct ;  although  public  opinion  has  materially  curbed 
its  power.  The  border-line  between  civilization  and  bar- 
barism is  faint,  and  almost  impalpable. 

So  long  as  the  King's  demands  could  be  met  by  taxes, 
or  confiscations  arbitrarily  imposed  on  the  natives,  the 
Normans  did  not  care  ;  but  when  he  began  to  tax  them 
also,  they  resisted.  This  led  to  the  compiling  of  that 
wonderful  inventory  known  as  Domesday  Book.  It  is 
uncertain  how  or  when  the  name  was  first  applied  to  the 
Great  Survey.  An  opinion  has  been  expressed  that  the 
English  regarded  the  Roll  as  one  of  final  doom  or  judg- 
ment ;  remembering  Avhat  they  had  already  suffered,  and 
anticipating  yet  greater  severity  and  arbitrary  rule. 
Doubtless  they  disliked  the  process,  just  as  the  modern 
Englishman  objects  to  what  he  regards  as  the  inquisi- 
torial nature  of  the  Income  Tax.  But  some  such  recapi- 
tulation, only  on  a  restricted  scale,  had  been  made  under 
King  ^<]lfred.  Stow  suggests  that  the  name  was  a 
corruption  of  Damns  Dei ;  the  name  of  the  apartment 
where  the  Roll  was  kept  at  Winchester,  One  thing  is 
noteworthy.      Careful    attention    is    paid   throughout    to 


A.D.  io66-io86.]      DOMESDAY  BOOK.  133 

legal  terms,  so  as  to  maintain  the  semblance  of  justice  in 
conformity  with  Norman  punctilio.  Even  though  an 
instrument  of  oppression  and  extortion  for  a  time,  yet  it 
became  in  the  thirteenth  century  the  ground  for  a  success- 
ful assertion  of  constitutional  rights.  William  I.,  like 
Henry  VIII.,  ruled  absolutely,  under  the  guise  of  a  legal 
tyranny.  This  claim  of  legality  furnished,  in  both  cases, 
long  after  their  decease,  a  plea  for  the  successful  assertion 
of  ancient  laws  and  liberties,  which  could  not  be  per- 
manently withheld  from  the  people. 

Domesday  Book  is  a  map  and  a  picture  of  England  as 
a  whole  ;  though  some  parts  are  more  fully  delineated. 
The  task  of  enumeration  was  ordered  to  be  undertaken  at 
a  Great  Council  held  in  Gloucester  in  the  Winter  of 
1085 ;  and  it  occupied  a  year.  Commissioners  were  sent 
out  in  groups,  over  assigned  circuits,  to  make  inquiries, 
to  examine  witnesses,  and  to  receive  testimony  on  oath 
concerning  all  the  lands  in  the  Kingdom ;  distinguishing 
between  meadow,  arable,  and  wood ;  with  the  names  of 
the  owners  at  the  time  and  in  the  days  of  Eadward  the 
Confessor.  The  Shires  were  taken  by  each  Hundred ; 
and  these  by  each  manor.  Full  particulars  were  also 
given  of  the  present  and  former  value  and  produce  of  the 
land ;  with  the  houses,  cottages,  tenants,  slaves,  mills, 
fishponds,  cattle,  swine,  ploughs,  implements,  and  pro- 
perty of  all  kinds.  The  actual  and  the  potential  values 
were  returned.  It  was  a  minute  inventory  for  purposes 
of  taxation  ;  but  it  was  something  more.  It  determined 
questions  of  granteeship  and  ownership,  and  was  the  basis 
for  settling  the  extent  of  military  tenure.  The  popula- 
tion actually  enumerated  was  283,342  ;  being  the  number 
of  able-bodied  men.  Multiplied  by  four,  this  would  give 
a  total  of  nearly  a  million  and  a  quarter,  which  was  not 
doubled  for  nearly  three  hundred  years  ;  so  terrible  was 
the  waste  of  human  life  by  constant  wars  and  frequent 
pestilence.  Of  the  total,  about  two-fifths  were  ceorls, 
or  freemen  ;  socmen,  or  yeomen ;  and  copyholders ;  as 
distinguished  from  the  small  bodies  of  thanes,  clergy,  and 
tenants-in-chief,  and  from  serfs  or  slaves. 

Incidentally,  various  side-lights  are  thrown  by  the 
survey  upon  the  customs,  laws,  and  manners  of  the  time. 
ll  is  the  greatest  and  most  daring  experiment  ever  made 


134  NORMAN  INFUSION.  [chap.  vii. 

in  economic  legislation.  Primarily,  it  is  the  record  of  a 
confiscation.  It  sets  up  a  new  theory  of  ownership.  By 
a  legal  fiction,  such  as  the  parchment  mind  delights  in, 
but  which  was  assumed  as  an  actual  fact,  a  formal  claim 
was  advanced;  sweeping  and  revolutionary  in  its  com- 
prehensiveness. Every  title  to  property  held  before  the 
Conquest,  and  every  transfer  made  since,  were  declared 
null  and  void,  unless  confirmed  by  the  King.  Number- 
less sales,  exchanges,  confiscations,  surrenders,  re-grants, 
and  alienations  of  land  had  occurred  duritig  the  previous 
twenty  years.  Now,  the  King  was  to  become  the  fount 
and  source  of  legal  ownership.  The  necessity  of  a  royal 
grant  for  peaceable  and  lawful  possession  of  land,  and  of 
every  kind  of  property  upon  it,  is  the  basis  of  the  Domes- 
day record.  A  man  who  could  not  produce  the  royal 
writ  and  seal  was  liable  to  be  evicted.  Similar  confisca- 
tions on  a  small  scale  had  taken  place  under  former 
kings,  and  re-grants  had  been  made  in  consideration  of 
service  rendered  or  of  money  gifts.  The  innovation  con- 
sisted in  all  lay  holdings  in  England  being  confiscated  at 
one  stroke.  By  a  refinement  of  legal  subtlety,  every 
man,  though  in  actual  possession,  and  the  heir  of  a  long 
line  of  ancestors,  was  held  to  have  suffered  a  constructive 
forfeiture  for  a  constructive  treason.  In  like  manner,  in 
the  time  of  Henry  VIII.,  the  nation  was  assumed  to  have 
infringed  the  Statute  of  Provisors,  by  the  recognition  of 
Wolsey's  Legatine  authority,  though  it  had  been  sanc- 
tioned by  Henry,  and  conferred  at  his  request.  Pedantic 
judges  have  proclaimed  at  the  end  of  the  nineteenth 
century  that  all  persons  looking  on  or  present  at  a  riotous 
or  seditious  assembly  are  liable  to  be  tried  as  accomplices. 
In  the  new  Norman  arrangements  respecting  land,  the 
tenure  was  supposed  to  have  lapsed,  and  the  actual 
owner  had  to  re-acquire  it  by  a  new  grant,  and  to 
acknowledge  that  he  held  from  the  monarch  as  supreme 
and  universal  proprietor. 

This  was  the  introduction  into  England,  although  in 
a  modified  form,  of  what  is  commonly  denominated  the 
Feudal  System ;  which  was  essentially  Frankish  in  its 
origin  and  application.  In  England,  it  embodied  a 
maxim  of  the  old  Rom_an  law,  that  all  land  was  held  of 
the   sovereign.     The    usufruct   was  granted  to  temporary 


A.D.  io66-io86.]  FEUDALISM.  135 

holders,  in  return  for  definite  services.  But  Feudalism, 
in  its  complete  form,  with  its  pretences  and  figments,  as 
affecting  every  relation  of  life,  and  with  its  Continental 
abuses  arising  from  subinfeudation,  was  never  fully  intro- 
duced into  this  country.  William  I.  expressly  avoided 
raising  up  a  body  of  powerful  vassals  such  as  existed  in 
France  and  Germany,  where  the  sovereign,  in  theory 
their  head,  was  virtually  their  servant.  It  was  alien  to 
his  purpose  to  suffer  the  creation  of  a  class  to  which  he 
still  belonged,  as  Duke  of  Normandy  ;  holding  territory 
under  the  King  of  France.  His  plan  evidently  was  to 
incorporate  certain  parts  of  the  system  into  an  existing 
framework  of  English  polity ;  with  special  modifications 
demanded  by  local  circumstances.  Feudal  tenure  of  land 
was  gradually  developed  in  England  without  the  peculiar 
feudal  jurisdiction,  and  without  the  gradation  of  personal 
ties  and  the  political  and  social  results  witnessed  in  other 
countries.  Much  obscurity  rests  upon  the  subject  ;  owing 
to  the  gradual  manner  of  introducing  changes  and  modifi- 
cations. In  process  of  time,  that  portion  of  the  Continental 
scheme  relating  to  military  tenure  was  embodied.  Holders 
of  land  were  required  to  render  personal  service  and  aid, 
in  men  or  in  money,  in  time  of  war.  Substituted  pay- 
ments were  called  Aids,  ReHefs,  and  Scutage,  or  Shield- 
Money  ;  with  certain  gifts  to  the  King  on  marriage,  for 
wardship,  on  sales,  and  when  taking  possession.  All 
this  came  later.  While  the  system  lasted,  the  monarch 
could  always  call  into  the  field  thousands  of  armed  men, 
who  were  bound,  under  penalty  of  losing  their  estates,  to 
attend  him  forty  days  in  the  year,  if  required  to  resist  an 
invasion,  or  to  put  down  an  outbreak.  Feudalism  also 
helped  to  curb  the  power  of  the  great  barons,  and  to 
secure  the  rights  of  the  people ;  although  it  is  not  for  a 
moment  to  be  supposed  that  William  I.  intended  it  in 
the  latter  sense.  He  kept  up  the  Hundred  and  the  Shire 
Courts,  with  their  familiar  and  ancient  local  jurisdictions. 
He  refused  to  his  nobles  any  separate  authority. 

A  meeting  of  the  Great  Council,  which  had  taken  the 
place  of  the  Witan,  was  held  at  Salisbury  in  1086.  The 
records  of  Domesday  Book  were  confirmed,  and  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  King's  supreme  ownership  of  land  was 
declared;    not   without   murmurs    and    some    resistance- 


136  NORMAN  INFUSION.  [chap.  vil. 

In  a  few  cases,  where  barons  were  too  powerful  to  be 
interfered  with,  they  were  left  alone  for  the  time,  or 
pacified  by  fresh  grants.  Most  of  them,  however,  knew 
the  King's  strong  will  and  hot  temper,  and  were  glad  to 
submit.  Each  had  to  take  a  new  oath  of  fealty,  in  the 
following  words,  uttered  while  his  hands  were  placed 
between  those  of  the  monarch  : — "  I  become  your  man 
from  this  day  forth,  for  life,  and  limb,  and  worldly 
honour,  and  unto  you  shall  be  true  and  faithful,  and 
bear  you  faith  for  the  land  that  I  hold  of  you.  So  help 
me  God  !  "  The  King  continued  to  be  the  supreme  lord. 
Every  subject  in  the  realm  was  his  man ;  owing  to  him 
a  primary  and  an  inalienable  duty.  The  design  was  to 
establish  the  power  of  the  Crown.  Troubles  like  those 
which  had  arisen  out  of  the  relations  between  the  Norman 
barons  and  their  Duke  were  guarded  against  in  the  new- 
realm.  They  arose  in  time ;  as  was  inevitable  under 
feebler  and  less  astute  rulers.  But  there  never  was,  in 
the  strict  sense,  a  feudal  system  of  government  in  Eng- 
land. As  a  land  system,  it  was  complete.  Its  moral 
and  .social  effects  have  been  stated  by  Hallam,  with  his 
usual  clearness  and  fairness  ('  Middle  Ages,'  i.  268). 

As  time  passed  on,  and  conditions  changed,  there  were 
new  applications  of  Feudalism  in  England ;  resulting  in 
oppression  and  tyranny.  No  fewer  than  eighty  different 
land  tenures  have  been  enumerated  ;  some  merely  nomi- 
nal ;  but  many  of  them  onerous  and  stringent.  Subse- 
quent struggles  between  the  Throne  and  the  baronage 
had  much  to  do  with  this.  In  turn,  the  barons  oppressed 
and  amerced  their  retainers,  so  as  to  raise  the  money 
required.  Every  burden  imposed  by  the  monarch  upon 
the  barons  or  knights  was  eventually  transferred,  with 
added  weight,  to  those  beneath  them.  At  length  the 
impositions  became  intolerable,  and  the  excess  of  the  evil 
wrought  its  own  cure,  as  towns  increased  in  numbers  and 
wealth,  and  the  citizen  class  were  able  to  impose  con- 
ditions as  the  price  of  pecuniary  aid.  Long  after  the 
system  culminated  and  began  to  decay  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  many  of  its  features  survived ;  as  narrated  in  the 
thirty-second  Chapter.  Struggles  against  privilege  and 
monopoly  in  recent  times  are,  substantially,  protests 
against  the  relics  of  feudalism,  and  just  demands  for  the 


A.D.  1070-1154.]    FALSE  DECRETALS.  137 

restoration  of  ancient  liberties.  English  practical  com- 
mon-sense has  swept  away,  with  impatient  scorn,  many 
of  the  fantastic  subtleties  in  which  the  legal  mind 
delights;  with  the  red-tape  formalisms  in  which  it  seeks 
to  carry  out  with  pedantic  precision  its  narrow  schemes. 
Freeman  has  one  of  his  most  incisive  passages  upon  this 
theme  ('Norman  Conquest,'  v.  460). 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

KING    AND    CHURCH. 
A.D.    I070-I154. 

In  order  to  secure  the  complete  authority  of  the 
Normans  over  England,  it  was  needful  to  bring  the 
great  body  of  the  clergy  into  subjection.  The  first 
thing  was  to  remove  natives  from  high  offices  in  the 
Church.  This  policy  was  maintained  for  nearly  a  century 
and  a  half.  Hildebrand  never  lost  sight  of  his  favourite 
scheme.  He  hoped  to  exact  from  England  a  measure  of 
ol)edience  to  the  Papal  See  which  had  never  before  been 
rendered.  He  strenuously  sought  to  carry  out  the 
system  for  which  the  False  Decretals  had  been  forged, 
early  in  the  ninth  century.  These  pretended  to  be 
rescripts  of  St.  x^thanasius  (296-373)  and  other  primitive 
bishops,  in  favour  of  the  appellate  jurisdiction  of  the 
Roman  See  in  all  causes.  On  these  spurious  Decretals 
was  reared  the  great  fabric  of  Papal  supremacy ;  over- 
riding national  councils  and  kingly  power.  Though 
repeatedly  proved  to  be  forgeries,  the  evidence  was 
suppressed,  until  the  time  of  Pope  Pius  VI.,  in  1789. 
King  William  did  not  intend  to  allow  the  claims  of  the 
Pope  to  supersede  his  own  authority.  He  sh(jwed  himself 
able  to  maintain  his  ground  against  the  priesthood,  even 
if  he  sent  costly  presents  to  Rome,  and  richly  endowed 
churches  and  abbeys  both  in  Normandy  and  in  England. 
Three  Legates  arrived  in  1070;  avowedly  for  the 
purpose  of  reforming  the  English  clergy.  He  used 
them    to   set   aside    natives    from    posts   of    honour   and 


138  KING  AND  CHURCH.  [chap.  viii. 

power  in  the  Church.  Ealdred,  Archbishop  of  York, 
had  recently  died,  and  his  office  was  vacant.  Stigand, 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  several  bishops,  numerous 
abbots,  and  others  in  the  upper  ranks  were  deposed  on 
various  pretexts ;  chiefly  that  their  appointments  were 
uncanonical,  through  the  schismatic  Pope  Benedict  IX. 

Their  places  were  filled  from  among  the  crowd  of 
needy  priests  and  monks  who  came  over  in  the  Norman's 
train,  or  who  followed  as  soon  as  success  was  assured. 
All  of  them  were  eager  to  share  in  the  good  things 
which  the  country  offered.  Some  became  notorious  for 
pride  and  greed.  Others  were  infamous  for  their 
private  character.  But  they  were  useful  in  consolidating 
the  ecclesiastical  system  as  part  of  the  machinery  of 
government.  If  the  national  clergy  had  continued, 
another  direction  might  have  been  given  to  the  whole 
course  of  English  history.  By  the  Battle  of  Hastings,  not 
only  was  the  civil  freedom  of  the  country  interfered  with, 
but  its  ecclesiastical  independence  was  eventually  over- 
thrown. It  became,  for  a  time,  under  the  successors  of 
the  first  Norman,  an  appanage  of  a  foreign  hierarchy  ; 
although  there  were  repeated  struggles  and  protests  until 
the  national  independence  was  finally  and  sucessfuUy 
asserted  at  the  time  of  the  Reformation.  Such  a  spiritual 
subjugation  would  have  been  impossible  with  a  clergy 
born  on  the  soil,  speaking  the  language  of  the  people, 
and  owning  no  allegiance  to  Rome  except  that  of 
fraternity.  When  a  horde  of  foreign  priests  came 
hither,  they  regarded  themselves  as  parts  of  a  vast 
system  that  ramified  over  every  land ;  its  head  being 
superior  to  all  temporal  rulers,  and  claiming  from  them 
unquestioning  submission. 

Tlie  learning,  the  high  character,  the  executive  ability, 
and  the  statesmanship  of  some  of  the  foreign  prelates  do 
not  admit  of  question.  Most  of  the  important  measures 
in  Norman  times  were  carried  by  their  instrumentality. 
They  were,  for  the  most  part,  shrewd  ecclesiastical 
lawyers,  able  administrators,  accomplished  courtiers, 
and  astute  diplomatists,  rather  than  theologians.  One 
of  the  best,  the  most  learned,  and  ablest  was  Lanfranc 
(1005-T089) ;  an  Italian,  and  Prior  of  Bee,  in  Normandv ; 
a  famous   school   of  learning   in  that   century,   and    the 


A.D.  1070-1154.]  LANFRANC.  139 

source  both  of  the  Canon  Law  and  of  Mediaeval  Scholas- 
ticism, through  Anselm,  who  succeeded  Lanfranc.  Much 
against  his  own  will,  the  latter  was  appointed  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury  in  August,  1070.  On  the  whole,  he 
ruled  the  Church  and  advised  the  King  wisely  and  well, 
while  upholding  what  were  regarded  as  the  rights  of  his 
office.  He  was  not  a  mere  devotee  of  Rome ;  yet  he 
never  became  English  in  sentiment.  He  was  a  zealous 
advocate  of  the  dogma  of  Transubstantiation ;  then  but 
little  known  in  this  country,  and  not  regarded  with  so 
much  interest  or  favour  as  on  the  Continent.  It  is 
certain  that  the  English  Church  became  less  national  and 
more  dependent  upon  Rome  under  Lanfranc ;  but,  while 
William  ruled,  it  was  never  degraded  into  the  condition 
of  a  fief  or  vassal  of  Rome.  The  old  dispute  about  the 
celibacy  of  the  clergy  was  revived ;  but  the  new  Arch- 
bishop could  not  force  his  views  upon  all.  He  succeeded 
in  applying  the  rule  to  the  capitular  as  distinct  from 
the  parochial  clergy.  It  was  resolved  to  forbid  priestly 
marriages  in  the  future.  He  also  sought  to  degrade  the 
memory  of  the  English  martyrs  and  saints ;  alleging  that 
they  were  not  worthy  of  the  name.  A  blow  was  aimed 
as  much  against  patriotism  as  against  religion  He 
seized  such  portions  of  the  Sacred  Writings  in  the 
vernacular  as  could  be  found ;  on  the  plea,  so  often  raised, 
that  the  translation  was  incorrect. 

The  King  did  not  interfere  in  ecclesiastical  mntters  so 
long  as  his  own  power  was  not  infringed;  but  he  made 
Lanfranc  and  the  other  foreign  prelates,  as  well  as  the 
Pope,  understand-  that  he  would  not  permit  any  dictation 
or  meddling  with  his  sovereign  rights.  When  Hilde- 
brand  mounted  the  Papal  throne  he  thought  the  time 
had  come  to  reduce  England  to  spiritual  bondage.  He 
reminded  William  of  the  help  given  at  his  invasion  of 
the  country  in  1066,  and  of  the  promises  then  made  in 
return ;  telling  him  that  his  kingdom  must  be  held 
subject  to  the  Pontiff.  The  reply  was  so  minatory  and 
passionate,  that  it  was  judged  prudent  to  say  no  more, 
and  the  claim  was  dropped  for  a  hundred  and  forty  years. 
Peter's  Pence  should  be  paid,  said  William,  because  of 
the  action  of  his  predecessors.  They  had  never  admitted 
a  claim   of  fealty;   nor  would  he.     He   regarded  himself 


I40  KING  AND  CHURCH.  [chap.  viii. 

as  the  legal  successor  of  a  long  line  of  English  Kings. 
Their  rights  were  his.  What  they  had  conceded,  he 
would  concede ;  but  not  one  whit  more.  He  tolerated 
no  invasion  of  his  authority.  He  was  really  the  Supreme 
Governor,  both  in  Church  and  State.  No  Pope,  bishop, 
or  other  clerical  dignitary,  could  secure  recognition  within 
his  dominions,  unless  by  his  express  consent.  No  Papal 
documents  carried  any  force  without  his  approval.  An 
ecclesiastical  council,  duly  convened  by  the  Archbishop, 
derived  authority  solely  from  the  monarch.  It  is  question- 
able whether  such  a  body  could  meet  or  debate  without 
the  royal  permission.  Excommunication  could  not  be 
pronounced,  nor  could  any  ecclesiastical  censures  have 
any  effect,  without  such  sanction.  William  was  not 
afraid  of  the  clergy,  nor  would  he  relinquish  any  of  his 
just  prerogatives.  At  the  same  time,  under  the  Norman 
rule,  a  gradual  change  was  introduced  in  ecclesiastical 
affairs,  by  which  they  came  to  form  part  of  the  great 
system  administered  throughout  Western  Christendom. 
For  nearly  five  centuries,  there  were  unwearied  attempts 
at  encroachments  by  Rome ;  to  a  greater  extent,  and 
carried  on  with  more  boldness,  than  attempts  of  the  kind 
had  been  made  even  under  the  later  native  kings ;  but 
they  became  more  bold  and  persistent.  There  were 
protests,  refusals,  and  resistance  on  the  part  of  monarchs 
and  statesmen.  The  struggle  was  prolonged  and  resolute. 
It  may  be  clearly  traced  in  an  unbroken  series  of  royal 
decrees  and  in  legislative  enactments,  designed  to  restrain 
the  greed  and  the  aggression  of  Rome ;  until,  in  the 
fulness  of  time,  her  authority  was  rudely  shattered  and 
thrown  off.  But  this  struggle  was  inevitable,  because 
personal  ambition  and  political  exigencies  had  induced 
William  I.  to  assume  an  attitude  which  afforded  to 
subsequent  Pontiffs  a  pretext  for  claiming  from  his 
feebler  successors  homage  such  as  he  would  never  have 
rendered.  He  opened  a  Pandora's  box  which  they  could 
not  close.  It  was  a  grave  blunder ;  but  one  that  seemed 
unavoidable  in  the  swift  current  of  affairs. 

A  change  was  also  made  in  the  tenure  on  which 
Church  lands  were  held,  by  requiring  a  certain  number 
of  soldiers  to  be  found,  according  to  the  value  of  the 
property    of    the    cathedrals,    the    monasteries,    and    the 


A.D.  1070-1154.]  ECCLESIASTICAL  COURTS.  141 

clergy.  Another  and  more  important  change  was  the 
gradual  estabhshment  of  ecclesiastical  courts,  and  the 
formal  separation  at  the  Great  Council  in  1086  of  the 
King's  Court  from  that  of  the  Bishop ;  leading  to  the 
distinction  between  what  were  termed  civil  and  spiritual 
causes,  and  to  the  enforcement  of  the  Canon  Law,  in 
distinction  from  the  Common  Law,  as  narrated  in  the 
tenth  Chapter.  Out  of  this  sprung,  in  process  of  time, 
claims  of  exemption  on  the  part  of  the  clergy  from 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  ordinary  tribunals  ;  with  appeals 
to  Rome.  The  ecclesiastical  courts  also  contrived  to 
obtain  control  of  matrimonial,  testamentary,  and  other 
matters,  which  brought  enormous  accretions  of  power 
and  wealth,  such  as  they  had  never  before  been  per- 
mitted to  enjoy.  The  growing  abominations  connected 
with  these  Courts  continued  in  England  long  after  the 
Reformation,  with  a  brief  interval  during  the  Common- 
wealth, and  were  not  swept  away  untft  the  nineteenth 
century  was  far  advanced.  It  is  incomprehensible  why 
an  astute  and  arbitrary  monarch  like  William  the  Nor- 
man should  have  consented  to  a  plan  that  was  certain 
to  entail  such  results  ;  unless  illness  had  enfeebled  him. 
When  his  strong  hand  was  withdrawn,  and  under  altered 
conditions,  the  germs  of  priestly  power  rapidly  developed. 
Many  long  and  bitter  conflicts  occurred  between  the 
State  and  the  Church  in  later  reigns  ;  for  the  authority 
of  the  monarch  in  all  spiritual  matters  was  sought  to  be 
subordinated  to  the  prelates,  who  were  inspired  from  and 
controlled  by  Rome.  It  is  not  surprismg  that  they 
should  have  been  denounced  in  such  vigorous  terms  by 
Milton  in  his  treatise,  '  Of  Prelatical  Episcopacy.' 
Fuller  also  says,  in  his  characteristic  style : — "  Hence- 
forward, the  canon  law  took  the  firmer  footing  in 
England.  Date  we  from  hence  the  squint  eyes  of  the 
clergy,  whose  sight,  single  before,  was  hereafter  divided 
betwixt  double  looks  at  two  objects  at  once,  the  Pope 
and  the  King  ;  to  put  him  first  whom  they  eyed  most ; 
acting  more  by  foreign  than  domestic  interest." 

The  germ  of  another  difficulty  appeared  at  this  time. 
Battle  Abbey  had  been  founded,  between  Hastings  and 
Lewes,  to  mark  the  site  of  the  great  contest.  The 
structure  was  large  and  imposing  ;  and    the  endowments 


142  KING  AND  CHURCH.  [chap.  viii. 

were  rich.  One  story  is  told  that  the  first  monks  com- 
plained of  the  lack  of  water  on  the  hill  of  Senlac. 
William  replied  that  if  God  gave  him  long  life,  wine  should 
flow  more  readily  in  his  new  foundacion  of  Battle  Abbey 
than  water  in  any  other  abbey  in  England.  He  did  not  live 
to  see  the  completion  of  the  enterprise,  but  it  has  special 
interest  as  giving  prominence  to  a  dispute  that  seems  to 
liave  waged  somewhat  fitfully  in  other  and  similar  cases. 
Exemption  was  claimed  from  the  ordinary  jurisdiction  of 
the  bishop  of  the  diocese.  This  was  part  of  a  scheme  at 
which  the  monastic  bodies  were  continually  aiming. 
The  Bishop  of  Chichester,  within  whose  bounds  the  new 
Abbey  was  placed,  strenuously  resisted  the  claim.  Lan- 
franc  himself,  though  a  monk,  took  this  view  as  Arch- 
bishop. He  had  already  become  embroiled  in  a  similar 
demand  for  immunity  on  the  part  of  the  monks  of  St. 
Augustine's,  in  Canterbury,  whom  he  put  down  with  a 
firm  hand  ;  flagellating  and  expelling  the  ringleader.  In 
like  manner,  at  Glastonbury,  in  1083,  because  the  monks 
would  not  abandon  the  old  mode  of  chanting,  Thurstan 
sent  French  archers,  who  broke  into  the  choir  and  shot 
them  down  at  the  altar.  Pope  Gregory  VH.,  true  to 
his  inflexible  policy,  saw  in  the  demand  a  means  of 
strengthening  his  own  power,  by  securing  the  support  of 
the  monastic  orders  as  against  the  secular  clergy. 
Charters  of  exemption  from  episcopal  control  were 
granted  to  monasteries ;  usually  for  a  large  pecuniary 
consideration.  This  was  a  fatal  mistake  ;  for  the  absence 
of  supervision  led  to  abuses  that  compelled  the  suppres- 
sion of  monasteries  in  the  sixteenth  century.  Before 
many  generations  had  passed,  the  independence  thus 
obtained  was  envied  by  the  secular  clergy,  who  also 
began  to  set  at  nought,  as  far  as  they  could,  the 
authority  of  the  bishops.  The  insubordination  of  the 
High  Church  clergy  in  the  nineteenth  century  is  noi 
peculiar  to  their  own  time,  but  is  a  vice  appertaining  to 
their  order  in  every  age  and  country. 

With  the  Battle  of  Hastings,  William  I.  bade  farewell 
to  peace  for  ever.  He  lived  for  twenty-two  years  after 
that  event,  but  they  were  years  of  storm  and  difficulty. 
His  children  repeatedly  took  up  arms  against  him.     He 


A.D.  1070-1154.]  DEATH  OF  WILLIAM  I.  143 

had  little  comfort  in  his  family.  Some  of  the  powerful 
Norman  barons  gave  him  much  trouble  ;  though,  in  the 
end,  they  were  mercilessly  suppressed.  He  was  per- 
petually crossing  and  recrossing  the  Channel  to  deal  with 
risings  and  mutinies.  Much  time  had  to  be  spent  away 
from  his  insular  kingdom.  He  had  an  anxious  and 
wearying  life.  During  one  of  his  frequent  absences,  an 
outbreak  occurred  m  which  some  of  the  Normans 
actually  joined  with  the  English ;  and  though  sternly 
put  down,  it  showed  what  a  feeling  existed.  His  eldest 
son,  Robert,  claimed  the  Duchy  of  Normandy  for  him- 
self, by  virtue  of  a  promise  said  to  have  been  made 
several  years  before  ;  but  the  father  would  not  cede  the 
actual  possession  during  his  lifetime,  and  they  parted  in 
anger,  and  with  mutual  curses.  He  quarrelled  with  his 
brother  Odo,  the  fighting  bishop,  and  kept  him  a  close 
prisoner  for  ten  years,  until  his  own  death ;  seizing  all 
his  vast  property.  It  is  evident  that  after  the  year  1075, 
all  the  troubles  of  the  reign,  like  those  in  the  time  of 
Rufus,  sprung  from  revolts  and  intrigues  among  the 
Normans.  The  English  were  usually  found  on  the  royal 
side.  They  had  learned  in  that  short  period  to  appreciate 
his  firm  rule,  even  though  it  was  often  oppressive.  It 
was  better  than  baronial  tyranny  and  arbitrariness,  or  the 
selfish  intrigues  of  rival  factions. 

The  life  of  the  King  was  drawing  to  a  close.  His  last 
days  were  more  cloudy  and  anxious  than  any  that  had 
gone  by.  His  wife,  Matilda,  died  in  1083.  His  eldest 
son,  Robert,  was  away ;  resentful  and  rebellious.  The 
castle  dungeons  of  England  and  Normandy  were  crowded 
with  captives  ;  both  foreigners  and  natives.  Among  the 
latter  were  Earl  Morkere  and  a  brother  of  the  late  King 
Harold,  both  of  whom  had  been  in  durance  for  many 
years.  The  Norman  nobles  were  in  a  state  of  chronic 
disaffection  ;  often  breaking  into  open  revolt.  In  1087, 
William,  though  ill  and  sinking,  went  again  to  Normandy, 
where  most  of  the  ten  preceding  years  had  been  spent. 
His  object  was  to  try  and  win  back  some  lands  which 
Philip  I.  of  France  had  taken.  Among  other  places,  the 
town  of  Mantes  was  captured,  plundered,  and  fired.  The 
ripening  crops  around  were  trampled  down,  the  fruit- 
trees  and  vines  destroyed,  and,  as   usual,  much   wanton 


144  KING  AND  CHURCH.  [chap.  viil. 

havoc  was  committed.  While  riding  through  the  smok- 
ing ruins,  his  horse  trod  on  some  embers,  swerved,  and 
seriously  injured  him.  He  was  carried  to  Rouen  on  a 
litter,  and  lay  for  six  weeks  in  great  agony  until  released 
by  death.  His  sons,  with  whom  and  among  whom  there 
had  been  repeated  contentions,  had  left  the  place ;  caring 
only  for  their  own  interests.  Almost  ere  the  breath  was 
out  of  his  body,  he  was  forsaken  by  his  courtiers  and  by 
most  of  his  servants ;  "  gone  to  salute  the  rising  morn," 
as  (iray  sings,  less  accurately,  of  the  death  of  Edward  HI. 
There  were  but  few  to  grieve  for  the  iron  soldier  at  the 
hasty  obsequies  in  the  cathedral  he  had  built  at  Caen. 

William  I.  is  one  of  the  few  monarchs  whose  personality 
has  left  an  impress  upon  English  history.  In  the  great 
drama  of  the  Norman  Infusion,  he  was  the  chief  actor. 
Never  was  the  public  peace  so  well  kept :  never  were 
robbery,  violence,  and  murder  so  rigorously  and  surely 
punished.  He  secured  for  England  a  place  in  the  comity 
of  European  nations,  such  as  she  would  have  been  slow 
to  win  under  the  old  conditions.  He  was  clever,  bold, 
and  vigorous  ;  determined  and  able  to  rule;  far-seeing  and 
prompt  in  device  ;  venturesome,  yet  sagacious.  He  was 
passionate,  and  even  vindictive  ;  grasping  after  wealth,  and 
yet  profuse  in  rewarding  service  ;  delighting  in  war  and 
in  the  chase  :  more  feared  than  loved,  and  hated  by 
many ;  as  the  writer  of  the  '  Saxon  Chronicle '  describes, 
from  personal  knowledge.  His  dominant,  forceful  charac- 
ter urged  his  advance  in  spite  of  obstacles  and  opposition. 
Troubled  with  no  compunctions,  and  regarding  mercy  as 
a  weakness,  he  shrunk  from  nothing  in  the  accomplish- 
ment of  his  purposes.  Living  in  a  rough  and  brutal  age, 
and  sprung  from  a  bold  and  aggressive  race,  he  was 
pitiless  and  unscrupulous  ;  but  probably  not  more  cruel 
and  fierce  than  the  standard  of  the  times  permitted.  He 
dealt  out  what  he  thought  to  be  justice ;  in  short,  sharp, 
coarse  fashion.  Blood  might  flow  like  water ;  untold 
misery  and  wrong  might  be  inflicted  upon  resistless 
innocence ;  smiling  and  fruitful  districts  of  many 
square  miles  in  extent  might  be  laid  waste ;  yet  he 
never  halted  or  swerved  from  his  chosen  path.  An  un- 
precedented and  unlooked-for  combination  of  circum- 
stances made  his  invasion  of  England  a  success.     Then, 


A.D.  1070-1154]     ROYAL  TREASURE.  145 

with  an  astuteness  of  which  the  morality  does  not  bear 
examination,  he  pretended  to  be  the  rightful  successor  of 
those  who  had  reigned  before  him,  and,  in  time,  the 
legal  fiction  crystallized  into  legal  fact. 

The  second  son  of  the  late  King,  named  also  William 
(b.  1056,  r.  1087-1 100),  and  commonly  styled  Rufus, 
from  his  ruddy  face  and  yellow  hair,  was  at  the  port  of 
Wisant,  near  Calais,  when  tidings  came  of  his  father's 
death.  He  crossed  the  Channel,  placed  reliable  friends 
in  charge  of  the  Kent  and  Sussex  castles,  and  hastened 
to  Winchester  to  secure  the  vast  treasures  there  accumu- 
lated ;  said  to  be  sixty  thousand  pounds'  weight  of  silver, 
and  great  stores  of  gold,  jewels,  armour,  and  rich  dresses 
of  tapestry  ;  all  of  which  he  seems  to  have  regarded  like 
the  Cave  of  Mammon,  subsequently  described  by  Spenser 
in  the  '  Faerie  Queene.'  Winchester  had  been  an  im- 
portant city  under  the  Romans,  and  it  was  the  capital 
of  the  kingdom  of  Wessex.  Alfred  rebuilt  and  enlarged 
it,  and  was  buried  there.  William  I.  erected  a  castle, 
and  it  was  his  favourite  residence  when  in  England.  At 
a  meeting  of  the  prelates  and  such  of  the  barons  as  were 
in  the  country,  Lanfranc  read  a  letter,  purporting  to 
have  been  dictated  on  his  death-bed  by  the  late  King, 
and  brought  over  by  Rufus ;  recommending  him  for  the 
vacant  throne.  He  was  crowned  within  three  weeks ; 
swearing  to  defend  justice,  equity,  and  mercy,  and  to 
maintain  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  Church.  It 
was  known  that  the  barons  in  Normandy  wished  to  have 
the  kingdom  and  the  duchy  united  under  one  ruler. 
When  they  heard  of  the  proceedings  at  Winchester,  they 
refused  to  recognis^  Rufus,  and  urged  Robert  to  oppose 
him.  An  army  was  brought  over  by  his  uncle,  Hishop 
Odo,  whose  long  imprisonment  had  ended  with  his 
brother's  decease.  Rufus  appealed  to  the  English  for 
aid  ;  promising  that  they  should  no  longer  be  heavily 
taxed,  and  that  the  harsh  Forest  Laws  should  be  modified. 
Thirty  thousand  men  are  said  to  have  responded  to  his 
call.  With  these,  and  his  own  Norman  friends,  he 
opposed  Odo  at  Pevensey,  and  made  him  yield.  Duke 
Robert,  always  apathetic,  dilatory,  and  careless,  arrived 
when  it  was  too  late.  He  was  easily  persuaded  by  his 
energetic   brother   to  agree   that  if  either  of  them  died 


146  KING  AND  CHURCH.  [chap.  viii. 

childless,  the  other  should  inherit  all.  Within  a  few 
years,  however,  Robert  pawned  Normandy  to  his  brother 
for  ten  thousand  marks,  to  enable  him  to  join  in  one  of 
the  Crusades  to  the  Holy  Land.  Thus  history  reversed 
itself.  A  Norman  Duke  conquered  England.  Now,  his 
son  and  successor  as  King  of  England  annexed  Normandy. 

For  many  years  loud  complaints  had  been  made  by 
those  who  went  on  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem  to  visit  the 
scenes  made  for  ever  memorable  in  sacred  history,  that 
the  Saracens — a  vague  synonym  for  all  infidel  nations, 
including  Turks — who  were  masters  of  the  country,  not 
only  exacted  heavy  tolls,  but  sometimes  ill-treated  the 
pilgrims.  Among  them  was  a  Frenchman,  Peter  Gautier, 
better  known  as  Peter  the  Hermit,  who,  by  his  fervent 
preaching  to  excited  crowds  all  over  Europe,  aroused  the 
zeal  or  the  fanaticism  of  Christendom.  William  of 
Malmesbury  says  that  "the  most  distant  islands  and 
savage  countries  were  inspired  with  this  ardent  passion. 
The  Welshman  left  his  hunting,  the  Scotchman  his 
fellowship  with  vermin,  the  Dane  his  drinking-party,  the 
Norwegian  his  raw^  fish."  Nothing  is  easier  than  to 
inflame  the  ignorant  and  unreflecting  by  impassioned 
appeals  to  prejudice  and  bigotry.  Happily,  the  effects, 
though  usually  disastrous  and  disgraceful  for  the  time, 
are  as  evanescent  as  the  means  employed  are  vile  or  con- 
temptible. Pope  Urban  H.  called  a  Council  at  Clermont, 
in  France,  in  1094,  at  which  it  was  resolved,  amidst 
tumultuous  excitement,  to  commence  a  Holy  War  for 
the  purpose  of  driving  "  the  infidels  "  out  of  Palestine. 
This  was  the  origin  of  the  Crusades  ;  so  named  from 
the  French  croisade,  or  red  cross  worn  on  the  right 
shoulder  by  the  warriors  and  devotees.  Three  hundred 
thousand  men,  a  disorderly  and  anarchic  multitude,  for 
the  most  part  drawn  from  the  dregs  and  refuse  of  Europe, 
are  said  to  have  embarked  on  the  first  of  these  Quixotic 
adventures.  They  swept  through  Germany  ;  committing 
horrible  ravages  on  nominal  Christians,  long  before  the 
infidels  were  reached.  Multitudes  perished ;  more  from 
debauchery,  famine,  and  pestilence  than  4n  battle  ;  and 
some  horrible  forms  of  disease  were  introduced  and  pro- 
pagated, that  have  left  their  foul  mark  upon  humanity. 

The  princes  of  Christian  countries  were  urged  to  join 


A.D.  1070-1154.]         THE  CRUSADES.  147 

these  Crusades,  and  to  induce  the  flower  of  their  chivalry 
to  do  so.  It  was  declared  to  be  a  work  of  great  merit 
and  piety,  that  would  ensure  the  Divine  favour.  The 
first  Crusade  commenced  in  1096,  and  ended  three  years 
later  in  Jerusalem  being  taken.  Tasso's  '  Gerusalemme 
Liberata'  is  an  heroic  record  of  the  conquest  under 
Godfrey  de  Bouillon.  The  success  was  transient ;  and 
no  fewer  than  seven  other  Crusades  were  undertaken 
between  that  time  and  1270.  The  only  points  at  which 
they  impinge  on  English  history  are  in  the  case  of 
Robert  of  Normandy  and  in  that  of  Richard  I.,  who 
engaged  in  a  similar  enterprise,  to  the  impoverishment 
of  his  subjects.  These  so-called  Holy  Wars,  like  the 
boasted  chivalry  of  the  Middle  Ages,  have  been  invested 
with  an  atmosphere  of  romance,  and  are  sometimes 
described  as  the  heroic  age  of  Christendom.  In  reality, 
they  were  inspired  by  fanaticism  and  carried  out  with 
ferocity.  Thousands  of  bold  and  unscrupulous  men 
assembled,  with  a  vast  retinue  of  lawless  banditti  as 
camp  followers.  Wherever  they  landed  or  marched,  the 
inhabitants  had  to  lay  their  account  with  violence  and 
bloodshed,  licentiousness  and  disease,  the  loss  and  destruc- 
tion of  property,  and  the  invasion  of  domestic  honour 
and  security.  The  records  abound  with  deeds  of  cruelty, 
rapine,  and  lust.  Indirectly,  the  Crusades  exerted  a 
beneficial  influence,  in  bringing  people  of  distant  lands 
into  contact ;  in  enlarging  their  information  ;  in  awaken- 
ing new  ideas ;  in  refining  the  taste  ;  in  opening  up  fresh 
channels  for  trade  ;  and  in  carrying  off  large  numbers  of 
robber  barons  and  other  useless  people,  to  perish  in 
Egypt  and  Syria  of  war  and  pestilence.  But  the  original 
inception  was  in  bigotry  ;  and  the  Crusades  were  pro- 
secuted with  the  diabolical  vindictiveness  that  always 
marks  religious  wars. 

During  his  reign  of  thirteen  years,  Rufus  not  only 
squandered  all  the  wealth  accumulated  by  his  father, 
but  earned  much  ill-will  by  extorting  large  sums  from 
his  subjects  ;  regardless  of  his  promises  and  oaths.  Not 
alone  by  heavy  taxes  was  this  done,  but  gifts  were  de- 
manded from  all  who  had  wealth.  Much  of  the  money 
was  lavished  on  mercenary  troops  in  his  pay.  Justice 
was   openly   sold.     Offices   and   titles   might   be   had   by 


148  KING  AND  CHURCH.  [chap.  viii. 

purchase.  A  low  and  vulgar  Norman  priest,  known 
as  Ralph  le  Flam  bard — "  the  firebrand,"  or  "  the  torch  " 
— who  rose  from  the  post  of  royal  chaplain  to  be  Justi- 
ciar and  Bishop  of  Durham,  was  a  favourite,  because  of 
his  ready  craft  in  devising  means  for  raising  money. 
Among  other  things,  he  suggested  the  sale  of  ecclesi- 
astical offices.  His  was  the  first  English  case  of  system- 
atic simony.  He  also  said  that  when  a  bishopric  was 
vacant,  the  King  might  take  its  estates  into  his  own  hands 
until  he  saw  fit  to  appoint  another  bishop.  lu  some 
cases  this  was  done  for  years.  Rich  abbacies  were 
treated  in  the  same  manner.  The  lands  were  sometimes 
let  during  the  vacancies  for  heavy  fines,  which  accrued 
to  the  King,  while  the  bishop  or  abbot  subsequently 
appointed  received  only  a  small  rent.  Such  methods 
of  spoliation  were  new  and  startling.  The  Chroniclers 
distinctly  assert  that  they  were  innovations,  and  regard 
them  with  horror  as  peculiarly  sacrilegious.  But  the 
practice  was  only  a  logical  sequence  from  the  theory 
that  a  high  spiritual  office  was  a  preferment  in  the 
royal  gift,  with  land  attached,  subject  to  personal  service. 
During  a  vacancy,  the  profits  accrued  to  the  King. 
This  convenient  and  lucrative  arrangement  was  main- 
tained down  to  the  time  of  Elizabeth,  and  gave  rise 
to  perpetual  disputes. 

Lanfranc  died  in  1089,  and  the  See  of  Canterbury  was 
not  filled  up  for  four  years,  when,  during  a  fit  of  remorse 
caused  by  illness  and  an  apprehension  of  death,  Rufus 
appointed  Anselm  (1033-1 109);  forcing  him,  against  his 
will,  into  the  high  but  difficult  position.  He  was  the 
intimate  friend  of  his  predecessor,  and,  like  him,  a  dis- 
tinguished monk  of  Bee.  His  meek  and  gentle  spirit 
could  be  aroused  into  heroic  courage  in  defence  of  what 
he  believed  to  be  the  right.  Within  a  month,  a  contest 
began  between  him  and  Rufus,  which  lasted  for  four 
years,  and  ended,  after  a  brief  interval  of  truce,  in 
Anselm  leaving  the  country.  He  went  first  to  Rome, 
and  thence  to  Lyons,  where  he  remained  until  the  death 
of  the  King  on  August  2,  11 00;  the  revenues  of  the  See 
being  again  sequestrated.  The  quarrel  arose  out  of  a 
refusal  by  Rufus  to  restore  to  it  property  which  had  been 
held  before  the  time  of  Lanfranc;  and  out  of  Anselm's 


A.D.  1070-1154]  RUFUS.  149 

demand  that  all  episcopal  vacancies  should  be  im- 
mediately filled  up.  He  also  claimed  to  obey  the 
King  and  the  laws,  subject  to  his  duty  to  the  Pope  and 
the  interests  of  the  Church ;  a  reservation  that  Rufus 
would  not  tolerate.  The  Archbishop  compared  their 
official  union  to  the  coupling  of  a  wild  and  untamed  ox 
with  a  meek  and  powerless  sheep.  History  is  silent 
as  to  the  opinion  of  Rufus  on  this  comparison.  His 
known  vices  and  sins  were  boldly  rebuked  by  Anselm, 
who  experienced  the  fate  of  St  Chrysostom.  The 
dispute  between  the  secular  and  the  ecclesiastical  powers 
culminated  in  the  time  of  Becket. 

The  monks  have  nothing  to  say  in  their  Chronicles 
in  favour  of  such  a  Kingj  but  all  their  statements  have 
to  be  taken  with  reserve.  As.  Fuller  says, — "We  only 
behold  him  through  such  a  light  as  his  foes  show  him 
in ;  who  so  hold  the  candle  that  with  the  shadow  thereof 
they  darken  his  virtues,  and  present  only  his  vices." 
Money,  which  was  the  sole  test  and  the  corrupted 
meaning  of  the  word  "  charity,"  served  literally  to  cover 
a  multitude  of  sins.  But  money  was  what  Rufus  would 
not  bestow  on  the  monks.  He  hated  them,  and  they 
returned  his  hatred  with  interest.  His  alleged  sins  are 
recorded  with  a  minute  and  painstaking  fidelity,  and  with 
a  depth  of  colour  that  shows  how  cordial  was  their 
detestation.  No  peccadillo  escaped  their  lash.  They 
could  not  understand  him,  and  he  delighted  to  perplex 
and  anger  them.  They  called  him  a  swaggerer;  an 
unbeliever,  and  a  devil.  He  retorted  by  outraging  their 
sense  of  propriety  more  and  more,  and  by  ridiculing,  like 
Momus,  their  notorious  weaknesses  and  foibles.  They 
regarded  him  with  horror  and  aversion  as  the  incarnation 
of  evil ;  as  if  he  were  a  visible  Ahriman.  According  to 
them,  he  was  a  monster  of  vice  and  iniquity;  glorying 
in  mockery,  ribaldry,  and  blasphemy.  They  could  )iever 
forgive  one  whom  they  charged  with  robbing  the  Church 
and  committing  the  sin  of  Simon  Magus.  Like  his 
father,  however,  he  was  too  strong  for  them.  If  bishops 
would  not  become  his  pliant  tools,  they  were  driven  forth 
with  contumely.  He  had  a  biting  tongue,  and  was  ad- 
dicted to  jest  and  sarcasm,  and  he  uttered  stinging  words 
which   the  ecclesiastical   mind   did   not  like.     He   railed 


i5o'  KING  AND  CHURCH.  [chap.  viii. 

and  reviled  with  acrimony  at  things  deemed  sacred,  and 
took  especial  delight  in  mocking  at  official  primness. 

Threats  of  excommunication  were  made  at  Rome  ;  but 
before  they  could  be  carried  out  he  was  dead.  Hunting 
in  the  New  Forest  one  day  in  August,  iioo,  an  arrow 
pierced  his  heart.  By  whom  shot,  and  whether  by 
.accident  or  design,  was  never  known.  Current  rumour 
ascribed  the  deed  to  vengeance  on  the  part  of  one 
oppressed  and  wronged.  Popular  superstition  dwelt 
with  awe  upon  the  circumstance  that  he  perished  in 
the  Forest  which  his  father's  cruelty,  selfishness,  and 
sacrilege  had  made.  It  was  also  noted  that  he  died 
suddenly  and  alone ;  without  warning,  confession,  or 
shrift.  Such  was  the  end  of  the  strong-willed  Rufus, 
who  "  feared  God  but  little,  and  man  not  at  all."  His  body 
was  found  by  a  charcoal-burner,  and  was  taken  on  a 
rough  country  cart  to  Winchester,  where  it  was  buried 
in  the  Cathedral,  without  any  kind  of  religious  service. 
During  his  reign,  that  part  of  the  gloomy  Norman  pile 
on  the  Thames  side,  known  as  the  White  Tower,  was 
completed,  with  a  bridge  over  the  river;  and  also,  in 
1097,  the  original  Westminster  Hall,  which  was  rebuilt 
in  the  time  of  Richard  H.  The  enormous  cost  of  these 
architectural  works  formed  grievous  additions  to  the 
burdens  laid  upon  the  people ;  and  the  Chroniclers  utter 
a  pitiful  wail  over  the  heavy  imposts  levied  during  this 
reign.  Attempts  were  made  to  subdue  the  Welsh ;  and 
the  Southern  portions  of  their  country  were  conquered 
for  a  time.  Cumberland  was  incorporated  with  the 
kingdom.  Carlisle  was  again  made  a  border  city  and 
fortress.  Magnus  of  Norway  tried  to  land  in  1098,  but 
was  driven  back.  This  was  the  last  attempt  of  the  kind 
made  upon  England  by  the  hardy  and  dauntless  North- 
men, whose  former  attacks  had  caused  so  much  loss  and 
suffering ;  mingled,  however,  with  not  a  little  gain  to  the 
national  character. 

Prince  Henry  (b.  1068,  r.  1100-1135),  usually  styled 
Beauclerc,  or  "  the  fine  scholar " — which  must  be  under- 
stood in  an  accommodated  or  elementary  sense — was  also 
hunting  in  the  New  Forest  when  his  brother  was  killed. 
He  hastened,  in  his  turn,  to  Winchester,  and  by  mingled 
cajolery   and   threats   secured   the    royal   treasure  stored 


A.D.  1070-1154.]  CHARTER  OF  LIBERTIES.  151 

there.  His  elder  brother,  Robert,  was  still  absent  on  his 
crusading  expedition.  Henry,  like  a  true  son  of  his 
father,  acted  with  courage  and  promptitude.  In  the 
face  of  some  mutterings  of  resistance  by  Norman  barons, 
and  of  overt  acts  of  opposition  on  the  part  of  his  brother's 
adherents,  he  boldly  threw  himself  upon  the  sympathies 
of  the  English  people.  Largesses  were  scattered  out  of  the 
royal  treasure-house,  and  a  similar  course  was  pursued  in 
the  metropolis,  where,  after  a  form  of  election  had  been 
gone  through,  he  was  crowned  by  the  Bishop  of  London, 
three  days  after  the  death  of  Rufus.  Strictly  speaking, 
this  was  a  usurpation  of  the  legal  rights  of  Robert,  but 
the  colourable  pretext  of  an  election  was  given,  and, 
happily  for  the  future  of  England,  the  new  monarch  had 
to  invoke  the  popular  favour.  He  appealed  to  the 
English,  as  his  brother  had  done,  and  as  one  born  in 
their  midst,  and  gave  them  that  Charter  of  Liberties 
which  became  the  model  and  the  assurance  of  similar 
instruments  in  after  times.  Flagrant  wrongs  in  the 
administration  of  justice,  in  the  levying  of  taxes,  and 
in  the  assertion  of  arbitrary  power,  were  promised  to 
be  redressed.  This  step,  though  enf-^rced  by  the 
exigencies  of  the  time,  was  a  clear  gain  in  the  con- 
solidation of  public  liberties.  The  principles  thus 
established  were  afterwards  applied  in  a  variety  of 
ways. 

Two  of  the  clauses  are  of  peculiar  value,  as  showing 
that  the  concessions  were  to  extend  to  all  classes  : — "  In 
like  manner  shall  the  men  of  my  barons  relieve  their 
lands  at  the  hand  of  their  lords  by  a  just  and  lawful 
relief";  and, — "In  like  manner  I  enjoin  that  my 
barons  restrain  themselves  in  dealing  with  the  sons 
and  daughters  and  wives  of  their  men."  This  last 
sentence  throws  a  gleam  of  light  upon  a  horrible  con- 
dition of  things,  at  which  contemporary  writers  frequently 
glance  in  somewhat  oblique  fashion.  In  a  Council  held 
at  Lambeth,  under  Anselm,  to  determine  whether 
Matilda — or  Edith,  as  she  had  been  called — the  orphan 
daughter  of  Malcolm  Canmore,  King  of  Scotland,  could 
canonically  marry  Henry,  as  she  had  been  forced  to  take 
the  veil,  the  following  declaration  was  recorded, — "  When 
the   great    King   William  conquered   this  land,  many  of 


1 52  KING  AND  CHURCH.  [chap.  viii. 

his  followers,  elated  by  so  great  a  victory,  and  thinking 
that  every  thing  ought  to  be  subservient  to  their  will 
and  pleasure,  not  only  seized  the  provisions  of  the  con- 
quered, but  invaded  the  honour  of  their  matrons  and 
virgins  whenever  they  had  an  opportunity.  This  obliged 
many  young  ladies,  who  dreaded  tlieir  violence,  to  put 
on  the  veil  to  preserve  their  honour." 

Anselm  had  been  recalled  from  exile  to  resume  the 
position  of  head  of  the  English  Church.  One  of  his  first 
official  duties  was  to  conduct  the  royal  marriage.  This 
politic  procedure  was  designed  to  ingratiate  the  English 
people  ;  as  the  mother  of  the  new  Queen  was  sister  to 
Eadgar  ^theling.  It  might  have  succeeded ;  but  for  the 
way  in  which  Henry  persisted  in  asserting  the  forest 
monopolies.  He  punished  their  slightest  infraction  as 
severely  as  his  father  and  his  brother  had  done.  How  far 
promises  made  for  the  redress  of  grievances  were  kept 
when  the  immediate  necessity  for  fair  speech  had  passed 
away,  may  be  judged  from  what  Eadmer  of  Canterbury, 
the  friend  of  Anselm,  writes  in  his  Chronicle,  from 
personal  knowledge.  He  records  that  the  taxes  were 
collected  with  extreme  rigour.  The  officers  seemed  to 
have  no  feelings  of  humanity  or  justice.  If  a  man  had 
no  money,  he  was  cast  into  prison,  or  forced  to  flee  the 
country  ;  his  goods  were  sold  ;  the  door  of  his  house  was 
carried  away,  and  the  slender  remains  of  his  property  were 
exposed  to  the  mercy  of  the  passers-by.  If  he  had  money, 
he  was  harassed  with  threats  of  prosecution  for  imagin;..ry 
offences,  till  he  surrendered  all  that  he  possessed  ;  for  no 
one  dared  to  enter  into  litigation  with  the  sovereign,  or 
by  refusing  to  pay  the  illegal  demand,  subject  himself  to 
the  loss  of  all  he  had  : — "  There  are  many  who  will  think 
little  of  such  enormities  ;  so  much  have  we  been  habituated 
to  them  under  the  last  two  monarchs."  At  the  same  time, 
rough,  stern,  swift  justice  was  executed  upon  offenders  ; 
especially  on  thieves  and  robbers,  and  other  disturbers 
of  the  public  peace.  But  the  epithet,  the  Lion  of 
Justice,  applied  to  Henry  by  some  of  his  monkish 
eulogists,  is  one  of  the  exaggerated  phrases  so  com- 
monly used. 

AVith  the  return  of  Anselm  there  was  a  renewal  of  the 
old  dispute  as  to  the  regal  appointment  of  bishops  and 


A.D.  1070-1154.]  ANSELM.  153 

abbots;  as  to  investiture  with  the  ring  and  staff;  and 
as  to  homage.  It  was  part  of  the  long  struggle  between 
the  ancient  law  and  custom  of  England  and  the  growing 
pretensions  of  Rome.  This  particular  quarrel  waged  for 
six  years,  and  involved  another  exile  of  sixteen  months 
for  the  Archbishop.  Henry  was  determined  to  maintain 
the  Crown  rights.  He  was  willing  to  allow  the  form  of 
election ;  but  it  must  be  of  men  chosen  by  himself. 
Anselm  was  as  resolute  in  defending  what  he  conscien- 
tiously held  to  be  the  rights  of  his  office.  Pope  Pascal  H. 
vacillated,  and  sought  to  avoid  giving  offence  to  either 
side.  A  compromise  was  effected.  Anselm  agreed  to  do 
homage  for  the  temporalities  of  his  See,  and  to  allow  his 
suffragans  to  do  the  same  ;  on  condition  that  the  spiritual 
investiture  with  the  ring  and  staff  was  not  claimed  by  the 
monarch.  The  outward  form  was  relinquished,  but  the 
substance  of  kingly  supremacy  remained.  Ecclesiastical 
pretensions  were  temporized  with,  and  kept  at  bay ;  but 
never  practically  admitted.  When  Anselm  died,  in  1109, 
Henry  appropriated  for  five  years  the  enormous  revenues 
of  Canterbury,  in  flagrant  violation  of  his  promises. 
During  the  remainder  of  his  reign  there  were  smoulder- 
ing embers  of  strife  between  the  temporal  and  spiritual 
powers ;  occasionally  bursting  into  a  fitful  flame,  and 
then  dying  away ;  only  to  break  forth  into  a  fierce  con- 
flagration subsequently,  between  other  disputants.  True 
to  his  family  character,  the  King's  will  sometimes  took  a 
grimly  humorous  form.  He  appointed  a  poor  monk  to 
the  bishopric  of  Salisbury,  solely  because  of  his  rapidity 
in  saying  Mass  "fitly  for  hunting  men."  This  Roger 
began  the  organization  of  the  Exchequer,  which  was 
perfected  under  Henry  II. 

The  saintliness  of  Anselm's  character,  his  renown  as  a 
philosopher,  and  his  abilities  as  an  ecclesiastical  statesman 
are  admirably  delineated  in  the  memoir  by  Dean  Church. 
His  writings  exhibit  the  depth  and  acuteness  of  his  intellect. 
He  was  second  to  Augustine  of  Hippo,  in  his  abiding 
nfluence  and  authority  in  the  Church.  Embracing,  with- 
mt  question,  its  doctrines,  mostly  as  set  forth  by  Augustine, 
and  holding  strenuously  that  implicit  belief  must  precede 
knowledge,  he  yet  felt  the  necessity  for  a  system  of  religious 
philosophy,   urged   the  duty  of  proceeding  from  faith  to 


154  KING  AND  CHURCH.  [chap.  viil. 

intellectual  processes,  and  sought  to  reduce  the  truths 
of  religion  into  the  systematic  form  of  a  connected  series  of 
arguments.  For  this  purpose  he  wrote  his  '  Monologium 
sive  Exemplum  Mcditandi  de  Ratione  Fidei.'  In  another 
work,  '  Fides  quasreus  Intellectum,'  he  strove  to  demon- 
strate the  existence  of  God  from  the  conception  of  a 
perfect  being ;  a  species  of  ontological  proof  that  has 
never  been  deemed  satisfactory.  All  his  writings,  how- 
ever, mark  an  epoch  in  Christian  philosophy.  He  may 
be  justly  regarded  as  the  earliest  of  the  schoolmen, 
although  Alexander  of  Hales  was  the  first  who  com- 
pletely systematized  in  their  well-known  manner  the 
doctrines  of  the  Catholic  Church.  Hales,  styled  the 
Irrefragable  Doctor,  who  died  in  1245,  was  a  native  of 
Gloucestershire,  and  became  a  noted  professor  of  philosophy 
and  theology  in  Paris.  He  was  a  Minorite  Friar.  His 
chief  and  only  authentic  work  is  the  '  Summa  Universa 
Theologias ' ;  written  by  command  of  Pope  Innocent  IV. 
Instead  of  appealing  to  tradition  and  authority,  he 
deduced,  with  great  skill  and  subtlety,  from  assumed 
premisses,  the  most  startling  doctrines,  especially  in 
support  of  the  Papal  prerogative.  He  refused  any 
toleration  to  heretics,  and  would  have  them  deprived  of 
ail  property.  He  argued  that  subjects  are  absolved  from 
obligation  to  obey  a  prince  who  is  not  submissive  to  the 
Church.  He  held  that  the  spiritual  power,  which  blesses 
and  consecrates  kings,  is  above  all  temporal  powers ; 
whom  it  has  the  right  to  appoint  and  to  judge ;  while 
the  Pope  has  no  judge  but  God.  In  ecclesiastical  affairs, 
also,  Hales  maintained  the  Pope's  authority  to  be  full,  com- 
plete, absolute,  and  superior  to  all  laws  and  customs. 
He  reduced  all  the  doctrines  of  the  Church  to  rigorous 
syllogisms,  and  displayed  marvellous  dialectical  ingenuity 
in  dealing  with  the  metaphysical  puzzles  in  which  his 
age  delighted ;  but  the  utter  uselessness  of  which  fills 
modern  readers  with  astonishment. 

Henry  I.  also  addressed  himself  to  the  difficult  task  of 
curbing  the  power  of  the  barons.  It  was  a  matter  of 
policy  to  put  down  the  proud  families  by  whose  aid  his 
father  won  England.  Many  of  them  acted  despotically. 
There  were  constant  feuds  and  raids.  The  authority  of 
the  Crown  was  to  a  large  extent  nominal.     Conspiracies 


A,D.  1070-1154.]         DUKE  ROBERT.  155 

and  outbreaks  were  frequent  among  the  Normans.  The 
character  of  these  turbulent  nobles  appears  from  what 
Henry  of  Huntingdon  narrates  of  Robert  de  Belesme, 
Earl  of  Shrewsbury  : — "  He  was  a  very  Pluto,  Megaera, 
Cerberus,  or  anything  that  you  can  conceive  still  more 
horrible.  He  preferred  the  slaughter  of  his  captives  to 
their  ransom.  He  tore  out  the  eyes  of  his  godson,  whose 
father  had  escaped  after  offending  him.  He  impaled 
persons  of  both  sexes  on  stakes.  To  butcher  men  in  the 
most  horrible  manner  was  to  him  an  agreeable  feast." 
This  man  was  cited  before  a  council  of  barons  and  pre- 
lates, but  he  intrenched  himself  in  his  castle  of  Bridg- 
north. He  was  besieged  and  defeated,  and  had  to  flee 
the  country.  His  vast  estates  were  confiscated,  and  a 
similar  course  was  adopted  towards  others  of  these  titled 
bandits.  Under  such  vigorous  rule,  their  power  was 
restrained,  but  it  was  asserted  with  increased  violence 
during  the  troublous  time  of  Stephen.  A  feeble  attempt 
was  made  in  iioi  by  Duke  Robert  of  Normandy  to 
assert  his  hereditary  claims,  but  he  speedily  relinquished 
them  for  a  pension  of  three  thousand  marks  ;  with  a 
mutual  engagement  that  if  he  or  his  brother  died  without 
heirs,  the  survivor  should  succeed  to  the  whole  inheri- 
tance. Five  years  later,  on  the  pretext  that  some  recal- 
citrant baron,s  had  been  harboured  in  Normandy,  Henry 
crossed  the  Channel,  and  defeated  and  captured  his 
brother,  who  was  immured  in  Cardiff  Castle  for  twenty- 
nine  years,  until  death  released  him.  The  Battle  of 
Hastings  was  avenged.  Normandy  and  England  were 
re-united  under  one  ruler,  not  without  constant  warfare, 
involving  long  and  frequent  absence  from  England  on 
the  part  of  Henry. 

It  is  needless  to  narrate  his  battles,  sieges,  and  intrigues 
with  reference  to  his  Continental  dominions.  They  are 
detailed  at  wearisome  length  in  the  annals  of  the  time. 
Of  strictly  English  matters  there  is  little  to  record.  An 
end  came  to  the  reign  in  December,  1135,  through  a 
surfeit  caused  by  over-indulgence  in  lampreys,  of  which 
Henry  was  inordinately  fond  ;  so  that  his  fate  resembled 
that  of  Apicius.  The  King's  possessions  were  bequeathed 
to  his  only  living  child,  Matilda,  who,  as  a  baby  of  eight 
years,  had  been  married  in  11 14  by  her  father,  for  political 


156  KING  AND  CHURCH.  [chap.  viil. 

reasons,  to  Henry  V.,  Emperor  of  Germany,  and,  after  his 
death,  to  Geoffrey  of  Anjou,  in  1127,  then  a  boy  of 
fifteen.  But  Stephen  of  Blois,  whose  mother  was  daugh- 
ter to  WiUiam  the  Conqueror,  and  whose  wife  was  niece 
of  the  wife  of  Henry  I.,  had  been  intriguing  for  the  suc- 
cession to  the  EngUsh  throne.  He  had  sworn,  with  all 
the  EngHsh  and  Norman  nobles,  to  recognise  Matilda  on 
the  death  of  her  father.  Whatever  censure  attaches  to 
the  alleged  violation  of  Harold's  oath,  applies  equally,  and 
far  more  positively,  to  Stephen.  But  oaths  were  readily 
taken,  and  as  readily  broken,  for  any  personal  advan- 
tage. Stephen  (b.  1105,  r.  1135-1154)  hastened  from 
Boulogne  to  London.  By  bribes  and  promises,  aided  by 
the  Norman  dislike  to  a  female  sovereign,  he  secured  an 
informal  kind  of  nomination  from  the  citizens  and  from 
such  chief  persons  as  could  be  hastily  assembled.  He  was 
crowned  December  26,  11 35.  The  barons  and  prelates, 
in  taking  the  oath  of  allegiance,  inserted  a  clause  that 
they  would  remain  faithful  to  him  as  long  as  he  observed 
the  engagements  of  his  coronation  oath.  The  ecclesi- 
astics also  stipulated  that  he  was  to  preserve  the  rights  of 
the  Church ;  which  meant,  as  events  speedily  showed, 
that  they  were  to  be  left  to  do  as  they  chose.  It  also 
involved  the  humiliation  of  the  grant  of  the  Crown  being 
confirmed  by  the  Pope.  This  was  the  logical  sequence 
of  the  act  of  William  I.  in  asking  the  sanction  of  Rome 
for  his  expedition,  and  of  his  subsequent  relations  to  the 
Holy  See. 

Before  the  expiration  of  twelve  months,  Stephen  was 
opposed  by  some  of  his  turbulent  barons.  He  was  an 
amiable  but  weak  man,  and  the  rule  needed  at  the  time 
was  vigorous  firmness,  if  not  stern  repression.  The 
country  was  soon  plunged  in  all  the  horrors  of  internecine 
strife  ;  chiefly  carried  on  by  mercenaries  from  the  Con- 
tinent, engaged  on  both  sides.  The  Saxon  Chronicle, 
which  ends  with  this  reign,  gives  sad  details  of  attacks 
and  reprisals  ;  of  cities  besieged  and  sacked  ;  of  battles 
and  skirmishes  ;  of  torture  and  robbery ;  of  murder  and 
ravishing ;  of  destruction  and  incendiarism.  Matilda 
arrived  in  1139,  to  assert  her  claims.  Robert  of  Glou- 
cester, her  illegitimate  brother,  was  her  champion. 
Stephen  had  the  misfortune  to    be   captured   in  a  battla 


AD.  1070-1154.]    RIVALS  TO  THE  THRONE.  157 

near  Lincoln  ;  but  his  adherents  shortly  afterwards  took 
Robert,  and  an  exchange  of  prisoners  was  effected.  The 
strife  continued,  with  brief  intermissions  and  with  fluctu- 
ating results,  for  eight  years,  and  then  Matilda  withdrew 
to  the  Continent.  Scarcely  any  part  of  the  country 
escaped.  Anarchy  prevailed,  and  such  a  condition  of 
wretchedness  as  was  seldom  before  and  never  since  known 
in  England.  Every  man  did  that  which  was  right  in  his ' 
own  eyes.  The  strong  and  the  brutal  tyrannized  over 
the  weak  and  the  innocent.  Commerce,  industry,  and 
agriculture  suffered ;  and  both  parties  to  the  strife  were 
exhausted.  Yet  there  were  mitigating  circumstances. 
The  power  of  the  Norman  baronage  was  weakened.  The 
authority  of  the  sovereign  was  impaired.  Men  learned  to 
appreciate  the  blessings  of  orderly  government,  and  the 
protection  of  life  and  property.  The  feudal  principle  was 
restrained  by  judicious  checks  and  safeguards.  Ancient 
wrongs,  jealousies,  and  distinctions  were  forgotten.  A 
beginning  was  made  of  that  national  sentiment  between 
the  English  and  the  children  of  the  Norman  settlers  of 
which  so  much  will  be  seen  in  the  course  of  the  twelfth 
and  thirteenth  centuries.  The  close  of  the  distinctively 
!Norman  period  was  reached  within  eighty-eight  years  of 
the  hostile  landing  on  the  Sussex  coast  and  the  Battle  of 
Hastings.     A  new  era  was  about  to  be  inaugurated. 

Henry  of  Anjou,  son  of  Geoffrey  and  Matilda,  born  in 
IT 33,  succeeded  to  his  father's  heritage  when  eighteen 
years  old.  In  the  following  year,  1152,  he  strengthened 
his  position  by  a  politic  marriage  with  Eleanor  of  Aqui- 
taine,  Queen  of  Louis  VH.  of  France,  who  divorced  her- 
self for  the  purpose  within  two  months  ;  contemptuously 
saying,  in  the  plain  speech  of  the  time,  that  she  had 
married  a  monk,  and  not  a  king.  Henry  acquired  large 
and  wealthy  provinces,  in  addition  to  his  hereditary  pos- 
sessions in  Anjou  and  Normandy.  In  1153  he  crossed 
the  Channel  for  the  purpose  of  enforcing  his  claim  to 
England,  through  his  mother.  Instead  of  fighting, 
negotiations  were  carried  on  with  Stephen,  and  a  settle- 
ment was  made.  The  existing  occupancy  of  the  throne 
was  to  continue  ;  and  Henry  was  to  follow.  This  was 
not  merely  a  personal  bargain  between  two  rivals.  It 
was    discussed,    settled,   and    ratified    in    several   formal 


158  SOCIAL  GLIMPSES.  [chab.  ix. 

gatherings  of  the  chief  men  of  the  land.  The  attitude 
of  the  barons  is  thus  described  by  Henry  of  Huntingdon  : 
— "  Then  arose  the  barons,  or,  rather,  the  betrayers  of 
England,  treating  of  concord  although  they  loved  nothing 
better  than  discord  ;  but  they  would  not  join  battle,  for 
they  desired  to  exalt  neither  of  the  two,  lest  if  the  one 
were  overcome  the  other  should  be  free  to  govern  them  ; 
they  knew  that  so  long  as  one  was  in  awe  of  the  other, 
he  could  exercise  no  royal  authority  over  them."  In  the 
following  year,  1154,  Stephen  died,  and  the  arrangement 
as  to  the  Crown  led  to  important  constitutional  changes. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

SOCIAL   GLIMPSES    IN    THE   ELEVENTH    AND   TWELFTH 
CENTURIES. 

A.D.     I000-I200. 

Not  until  the  lapse  of  four  centuries  from  the  time  of  the 
Venerable  Baeda  does  a  writer  appear,  in  the  person  of 
AVilliam  of  Malmesbury  (1095-1143),  with  capacities 
higher  than  those  of  a  mere  copyist  of  monkish  gossip 
and  scandal.  Sprung  from  a  Norman  father  and  an 
English  mother,  he  represents  the  growing  fusion  of  the 
two  races,  though  his  sympathies  are  manifestly  on  the 
Norman  side.  He  is  a  good  specimen  of  a  Benedictine 
scholar.  By  general  consent  he  takes  the  foremost  place 
among  the  authorities  for  the  Anglo-Norman  period. 
He  may  be  designated  the  English  Herodotus ;  in  the 
sense  of  being  the  Father  of  its  History.  His  industry 
in  collecting  materials,  and  his  skill  and  judgment  in 
arranging  them,  were  marvellous  for  that  age,  consider- 
ing his  opportunities  and  the  means  at  his  command. 
The  most  important  of  his  works  is  '  Gesta  Regum 
Anglorum';  extending  from  early  times  to  the  year  11 20. 
Another  is  the  '  Historia  Novella,'  which  begins  with  3 
retrospect  of  the  reign  of  Henry  I.,  and  ends  with  the  year 
II 42.  A  third  gives  the  history  of  English  bishops  and 
of  the   chief   English  monasteries,   from  the  mission  of 


A.D.  I000-I200.]  A  CLASSICAL  RENAISSANCE.        159 

Augustine  to  the  year  11 23,  and,  with  Boeda's  work,  is 
the  foundation  of  the  early  ecclesiastical  history  on 
which  all  subsequent  writers  have  reared  a  super- 
structure. Twenty  other  productions  issued  from  his 
facile  pen ;  and  several  more  have  been  ascribed  to  him, 
though  without  absolute  proof. 

The  study  of  the  great  Latin  authors  produced  a  slight 
classical  Renaissance  at  this  period,  traceable  in  its 
Chroniclers,  who  give  lengthy  quotations  from  Horace, 
Ovid,  and  other  writers ;  contrast  their  heroes  with  such 
personages  as  Alexander  and  Caesar ;  and  copiously  em- 
bellish their  narratives  with  supposititious  speeches  after 
the  manner  of  Livy,  Thucydides,  and  Tacitus.  Many  of 
these  writings  have  been  lost,  and  their  existence  and 
character  are  known  only  by  extracts  or  references  in 
later  works.  From  this  time  onwards,  as  Sir  Thomas 
Duffus  Hardy  points  out  in  the  preface  to  his  admirable 
'  Descriptive  Catalogue,'  a  new  feature  appears  in  the 
national  literature.  It  becomes  more  versatile,  sparkling, 
and  attractive.  The  ecclesiastical  writers  furnish  anec- 
dotes, personal  and  satirical  descriptions,  and  amusing 
sketches  of  the  manners  and  conversation  of  their  day. 
Especially  is  this  the  case  with  Giraldus  de  Barri,  or 
Cambrensis  (i  147-1222),  and  with  John  of  Salisbury 
(1110-T180);  both  of  whom  were  diligent  students  in 
the  renowned  University  of  Paris,  and  cultivated  with 
success  almost  every  variety  of  style  then  known  ; 
w'hether  in  prose  or  verse.  The  former  was  an  Arch- 
deacon. In  such  of  his  numerous  writings  as  have 
been  transmitted  he  treats  of  divinity,  history,  biography, 
antiquities,  tradition,  and  travels.  He  is  by  turns 
satirical,  moral,  grave,  and  gay.  Though  garrulous, 
he  is  never  tedious.  When  somewhat  spiteful  he  is 
amusing.  His  works  are  of  a  miscellaneous  character, 
and  contain  many  racy  and  original  anecdotes  of  con- 
temporaries ;  with  jests,  quips,  and  criticisms  of  his 
own.  His  vivid  style  and  descriptive  power  are  remark- 
able. "  It  is  better,"  he  says,  "  to  be  dumb  than  not  to 
be  understood.  New  times  require  new  fashions,  and  so 
I  have  thrown  utterly  aside  the  cold  and  dry  method  of 
some  authors,  and  aimed  at  adopting  the  fashion  of 
speech  which  is  actually  in  vogue  to-day."     His  sarcastic 


i6o  SOCIAL  GLIMPSES.  [chap.  ix. 

exposure  of  the  ignorance,  selfishness,  and  profanity  of 
his  times,  occasionally  borders  on  caricature,  and  even  on 
what  a  more  prudish  age  would  regard  as  blasphemy. 
His  denunciations  of  the  numerous  scandals  connected 
with  the  King,  his  sons,  and  the  Court  may  appear 
exaggerated ;  but  they  are  abundantly  confirmed  by 
other  though  less  graphic  contemporary  writers. 

John  of  Salisbury,  if  not  go  vivacious,  was  a  man  of 
more  profound  learning  and  of  wider  range  of  observa- 
tion. He  studied  for  twelve  years  under  renowned 
teachers,  and  became  the  central  figure  in  the  learning 
of  that  time;  ending  an  illustrious  career  in  1180,  at  the 
age  of  seventy,  as  Bishop  of  Chartres.  His  curious 
treatise,  '  Polycraticus,'  is  a  medley  of  personal  experi- 
ences and  a  repertory  of  information  drawn  from  writers 
of  antiquity ;  including  poets,  philosophers,  historians, 
orators,  the  Fathers,  and  commentators.  It  is  a  series  of 
miscellaneous  essa5's  in  Latin  on  the  topics  of  the  day; 
furnishing  social  pictures  such  as  can  be  obtained  from 
no  other  source.  Among  the  subjects  treated  in  this 
copious  and  varied  work  are  hunting,  gambling,  music, 
magic,  omens,  astrology,  cosmogony,  metaphysical  theo- 
logy, medicine,  courtly  arts,  forms  of  government,  war, 
sects  of  philosophers,  marriage,  slavery,  the  vices  of  the 
age,  and  ?hnost  every  mundane  topic,  whether  practical 
or  speculative.  For  heterogeneousness  it  is  comparable 
to  Burton's  'Anatomy  of  Melancholy.'  In  the  writings 
of  the  jovial  and  witty  Walter  Map  or  Mapes,  the 
English  Anacreon  of  the  twelfth  century  (11 50-1 200), 
also  a  distinguished  Paris  student,  there  are  similar 
instances  of  this  kind  of  literature.  He  has  been  irre- 
verently called,  probably  with  injustice,  "the  drunken 
Archdeacon  of  Oxford."  Archdeacons  had  a  somewhat  evil 
reputation  in  those  days ;  but  their  functions  were  only 
quasi-clerical.  John  of  Salisbury,  who  at  one  time  was 
secretary  to  Archbishop  Theobald,  and  must  have  seen 
and  known  much  of  life,  propounds  the  scholastic  ques- 
tion— "  Is  it  possible  for  an  archdeacon  to  be  saved  ?  " 
Their  frays  and  escapades  in  the  Italian  law  schools  were 
matters  of  common  fame.  Most  of  them  were  appointed 
when  very  young,  through  family  influence. 

Mapes  was  remarkable  for  his  wit  and  humour,  and  for 


A.D.  I  ooo- 1 200.]      MA  TTHE IV  PA  RIS.  1 6 1 

his  contemptuous  references  to  the  men  of  his  own  pro- 
fession. Doubtless,  the  vanity,  restlessness,  avarice,  and 
pride  of  many  of  the  clergy,  and,  in  particular,  of  the 
members  of  the  Religious  Orders,  gave  ample  scope  for 
his  satire.  He  tears  the  veil  without  remorse  from  their 
greed,  their  indolence,  their  ignorance,  and  their  secret 
immorality.  He  was  a  marvellous  retailer  of  stories ; 
often  extremely  broad,  and  even  coarse.  He  wrote 
sparkling  songs  ;  chiefly  of  a  festive,  not  to  say  Bacchana- 
lian character,  which  suited  the  rough  humour  of  the 
Court.  His  best  known  piece,  if  it  be  correc  tly  ascribed 
to  him,  is  a  drinking  song,  which  has  been  frequently 
rendered  into  English  ;  one  of  the  most  graceful  versions 
being  by  Leigh  Hunt.  Mapes  showed  himself  to  be  a 
man  of  the  world,  as  well  as  a  scholar.  Besides  being 
fertile  in  producing  Latin  rhymes,  he  wrote  hymns  and 
poems  of  edification,  as  well  as  songs  and  satires.  His 
other  writings  abound  in  legends,  stories,  anecdotes, 
jests,  and  reflections ;  strung  together  in  a  careless, 
jaunty,  but  agreeable  fashion.  Their  accuracy  is  some- 
times open  to  question,  and  Mapes  cannot  be  regarded 
as  a  veracious  historian.  But,  as  a  matter  of  style,  his 
appearance  is  noteworthy  as  one  of  this  literary  triad. 

Belonging  to  the  next  century,  Matthew  Paris,  the 
monk  of  St.  Alban's,  who  died  in  1259,  was  the  greatest 
of  the  historians  of  his  Benedictine  Order,  and  the  last 
of  his  line.  He  was  a  much  more  enthusiastic  politician 
than  any  of  the  writers  who  preceded  him,  besides  being 
more  outspoken  in  criticism  ;  though  he  says, — "  The 
case  of  historical  writers  is  hard.  If  they  will  tell  the 
truth,  they  offend  men  ;  if  they  write  what  is  false,  they 
offend  God."  Lntensely  patriotic,  he  displays  a  strong 
bias  against  foreign  favourites,  and  has  little  to  say  in 
praise  of  kings  and  popes,  as  a  class.  He  lived  in  a  period 
when  his  country  was  beginning  to  taste  the  sweets  of 
liberty  ;  the  consummation  of  which  was  yet  to  be 
struggled  for.  As  an  Englishman,  he  groans  under  the 
humiliation  and  is  indignant  at  the  wrongs  then  en- 
dured ;  and  he  writes  sharp  and  bitter  things,  Alexander 
Neckham  (d,  1227)  was  a  man  who  devoted  himself  to 
science,  such  as  it  was,  in  the  twelfth  century.  In  his 
'  De  Naturis  Rerum '  are  to  be  found  what  may  be  called 
13 


1 62  SOCIAL  GLIMPSES.  [chap.  ix. 

the  rudiments  of  many  sciences,  mingled  with  much 
error,  ignorance,  and  superstition.  Neckham  was  not 
deemed  infallible  ;  even  by  his  contemporaries.  Roger 
Bacon  says  of  him, — "  This  Alexander  in  many  things 
wrote  what  was  true  and  useful ;  but  he  neither  can  nor 
ought  by  just  title  to  be  reckoned  among  authorities." 
He  had,  however,  sufficient  independence  of  thought  to 
differ  from  some  of  the  Schoolmen  of  his  time,  who  con- 
sidered themselves  the  autocrats  of  literature  and  the 
sole  depositaries  of  knowledge.  He  had  his  own  views  in 
morals  ;  and  in  expressing  these  he  throws  much  light 
upon  the  customs  and  general  tone  of  thought  of  his  day. 
William  of  Malmesbury  gives  a  graphic  delineation  of 
the  manners  of  this  period.  He  reproaches  the  men  for 
their  effeminate  and  unsuitable  dress  ;  including  the  long, 
pointed  shoes,  turning  up  like  a  ram's  horn,  and  fastened 
by  a  chain  to  the  knee,  and  "  the  fore  part  of  their  heads 
bare,  after  the  manner  of  thieves,  while,  on  the  back,  they 
nourish  long  hair,  like  harlots." 

Fashions  run  in  cycles  ;  and  they  always  have  a  throng 
of  eager  votaries.  Eccentricities  of  female  dress,  men- 
tioned in  the  Old  Testament,  using  the  phraseology  of 
the  Authorized  Version,  such  as  hoods,  wimples,  veils, 
broidered  work,  mufflers,  head-tires,  sashes,  mantles, 
shawls,  and  other  miscellaneous  articles,  may  be  recog- 
nised under  their  continuous  mutations  at  varying 
periods.  On  looking  through  illuminated  manuscripts, 
with  their  pictorial  representations  of  Mediaeval  costumes, 
it  is  noticeable  how  these  are  being  revived,  with  but  slight 
modifications,  by  the  feeble  inventiveness  of  modern  dress- 
makers. To  enter  into  such  matters,  excepting  so  far  as 
they  illustrate  others  of  more  importance,  is  superfluous. 
Details  can  be  found,  to  an  extent  to  satisfy  the  most 
finical  and  exacting,  in  works  specifically  devoted  to 
human  millinery  and  upholstery.  In  every  age  there 
have  been  too  many  with  souls  wholly  given  to  dress 
and  adornment,  yet  having  no  innate  sense  of  beauty, 
grace,  or  fitness,  who  suffer  themselves  to  become  mere 
lay  figures  for  exhibiting  the  freaks  of  fashion,  regardless 
of  health,  comfort,  appropriateness,  or  decorum.  All  that 
need  be  said  is  that  the  articles  of  English  dress,  for  both 
sexes,    continued    to    resemble    those    worn   in   previous 


A.D.  I000-I20O.]        ARCHITECTURE.  163 

times ;  but  the  materials  used  by  the  wealthy  were  riciher 
and  more  varied.  Silks,  furs,  decorated  leather,  and  fine 
cloth  became  general  among  the  nobles.  The  shapes  of 
the  garments  varied  with  the  fashions  introduced  from 
Normandy  and  Mid-Europe,  and  from  the  East  through 
the  great  trading  cities  of  Italy.  An  era  of  extravagance 
and  luxury  set  in.  Frequent  references  are  made  to  it  in 
sermons  yet  extant,  and  grotesque  instances  are  seen  in 
the  illuminated  manuscripts  of  the  time.  This  love  of 
caricature  is  perpetually  displayed.  Though  exaggerated, 
it  serves  as  a  running  commentary  upon  prevailing 
customs  and  manners  for  several  centuries.  Anselm 
threatened  excommunication  against  men  who  wore  long 
hair.  Serlo,  a  Norman  bishop,  preaching  before  the 
English  Court  in  1104,  denounced  the  fashion  in  such 
terms  that  his  hearers  consented  to  part  with  their 
flowing  ringlets  on  the  spot.  Ladies  wore  long  plaits, 
sometimes  protected  by  silken  cases  of  embroidery. 
Gloves,  jewelled  at  the  back,  became  a  mark  of  distinc- 
tion with  the  higher  classes.  Swords  and  helmets  were 
similarly  bedizened,  in  a  spirit  of  barbaric  splendour. 

The  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries  hold  a  distinguished 
place  in  the  annals  of  architecture.  They  mark  a  creative 
period.  The  edifices  known  as  Norman  are  characterized 
by  a  massiveness  that  may  be  styled  sublime ;  embodying 
in  stone  the  ideas  of  strength  and  durability.  Then  came 
the  Pointed  Gothic  and  the  Early  English  periods ;  the 
latter  of  which  produced  so  many  magnificent  cathedrals, 
minsters,  and  churches,  with  "  long-drawn  aisle  and 
fretted  vault."  (See  Chapter  XIX.)  Numerous  speci- 
mens still  exist,  even  after  the  culpable  and  ignorant 
neglect  of  later  times,  and  the  equally  culpable  and  igno- 
rant zeal  of  modern  church  restorers.  It  is  melancholy 
to  reflect  that  Time  has  been  far  more  merciful  than  man 
in  the  preservation  of  these  ancient  monuments.  Ruth- 
less wars,  wanton  damage,  the  exigencies  of  local  re- 
building, and  the  absence  of  taste,  knowledge,  and  a  sense 
of  fitness,  have  done  much  more  than  natural  decay. 
Instances  of  careful  preservation  show  what  might  have 
been  general,  but  for  lawlessness  and  indifference.  Of 
Norman  London,  according  to  Mr.  W.  J.  Loftie,  the 
chief  remains  are  the  White  Tower ;  parts  of  the  churches 


i64  SOCIAL  GLIMPSES.  [chap.  ix. 

of  St.  Bartholomew,  in  Smithfield,  and  of  St.  Ethelburga, 
in  IJishopsgate ;  and  the  crypts  of  Bow  and  of  St.  John's 
Priory.  Tlie  work  of  erecting  and  adorning  these  struc- 
tures must  have  involved  prodigious  expense  and  labour, 
patiently  carried  on  during  many  years.  William  of 
Sens,  architect  of  the  cathedral  of  Canterbury  and  of 
numerous  edifices  in  Normandy,  was  a  skilful  artist  in 
stone  and  wood.  Like  other  architects,  and  the  most 
expert  and  ingenious  workmen  of  the  time,  he  was  an 
ecclesiastic.  In  some  churches,  certain  dignities  and 
emoluments  were  assigned  to  such  of  the  clergy  as 
excelled  in  these  departments,  and  in  the  arts  of  struc- 
tural carving  and  adornment. 

In  military  edifices  there  was  a  still  greater  change. 
The  Norman  castle,  square,  thick,  solid,  impregnable, 
placed  on  a  commanding  height ;  frowning  over  a  city, 
or  guarding  a  valley  or  a  ford,  was  a  badge  of  conquest. 
It  sheltered  those  whom  the  Saxon  Chronicle  plaintively 
describes  as  "the  devils  and  evil  men  "who  wrought  so 
much  havoc  and  cruelty.  Its  horrible  donjon  keep  was 
often  the  scene  of  sufferings  and  of  torments  unutterable. 
Windsor  Castle,  begun  by  William  I.,  enlarged  by  Henry 
I.,  and  entirely  rebuilt  under  Edward  III.  by  William 
of  Wykeham,  is  the  subject  of  one  of  Burke's  boldest 
metaphors.  He  speaks  of  its  "proud  keep,  rising  in  the 
majesty  of  proportion,  and  girt  with  the  double  belt  of 
its  kindred  and  coeval  towers,  overseeing  and  guarding 
the  subjected  land."  These  castles  were  built  for  pur- 
poses of  defence  and  oppression,  rather  than  of  comfort. 
The  latter  was  not  considered  at  that  time,  or  for  several 
centuries,  in  ordinary  dwellings,  except  in  a  rudimentary 
fashion.  Wooden  houses  long  continued  to  be  common. 
The  furniture  was  scanty  and  primitive.  A  board  laid 
on  trestles  was  the  usual  dining  table ;  and  an  ordinary 
bench  or  form  was  the  seat.  The  Normans  were 
originally  more  temperate  and  delicate  in  their  meals 
than  the  Saxons ;  but  they  became  free  and  profuse. 
Frequent  references  are  made  by  contemporary  writers 
to  convivial  meetings  in  private  houses  and  inns. 
Generous  hospitality,  though  somewhat  rough  and 
coarse,  seems  to  have  prevailed.  Monasteries  had  their 
open  guest-houses,  and  travellers  were  seldom  refused  a 


A.D.  I0OO-I20O.]     RISE  OF  MIDDLE  CLASS.  165 

place  at  the  yeoman's  table.  Wine  was  the  common 
beverage  with  the  Normans,  as  ale  and  mead  were  with 
the  English ;  though  the  latter  acquired  a  taste  for  wine 
long  before  the  Conquest,  and  were  in  the  habit  of  im- 
porting large  quantities.  Alexander  Neckham  sets  forth 
the  qualities  of  good  wine  ;  which  "  should  be  as  clear  as 
the  tears  of  a  penitent,  so  that  a  man  may  see  distinctly 
to  the  bottom  of  his  glass."'  When  drunk,  "  it  should 
descend  impetuously  like  thunder,  sweet-tasted  as  an 
almond,  creeping  like  a  squirrel,  leaping  like  a  roebuck, 
strong  like  the  building  of  a  Cistercian  monastery,  glitter- 
ing like  a  spark  of  fire,  subtle  as  the  logic  of  the  schools 
of  Paris,  delicate  as  fine  silk,  and  colder  than  crystal." 
Cinnamon  and  other  Oriental  spices  were  in  growing 
request  for  flavouring  ale.  Sugar  was  first  tasted  by  the 
Crusaders  on  the  plains  of  Tripoli.  In  a  short  time  it 
became  an  article  of  import,  and  displaced  honey  in  rich 
households  as  a  sweetener  of  food. 

Another  important  social  force  was  beginning  to 
operate,  in  the  vast  increase  of  the  trading  class.  New 
and  refined  tastes  in  dress,  diet,  and  architecture  stimu- 
lated invention  and  developed  industry  and  commerce. 
Flourishing  towns  were  established.  Civic  Charters 
were  obtained  ;  some  few  of  them  before  this  period, 
but  most  of  them  subsequently  ;  the  exigencies  of 
monarchs  compelling  them  to  yield  commercial  liberties 
and  municipal  powers.  Thus  the  royal  requirements 
were  met,  while  the  towns  were  protected  from  irregular 
taxes  and  arbitrary  procedure.  Inducements  were  held 
out  to  traders  to  take  up  their  abode  in  such  places,  by 
the  assurance  of  protection  and  safety.  Before  the  reign 
of  Henry  I.,  marked  advances  had  been  made  in  these 
respects ;  but  progress  was  much  more  rapid  after  the 
anarchical  times  of  Stephen.  What  was  to  be  known 
eventually  as  the  great  middle  class  had  begun  to  assert 
itself.  The  merchant  and  trading  guilds,  existing  long 
before,  also  began  to  obtain  Charters  to  manage  their 
own  affairs  as  corporate  bodies,  and  to  regulate  their 
respective  trades ;  as  is  more  fully  described  in  the 
twenty-third  Chapter.  There  were  guilds  of  mercers, 
weavers,  fullers,  clothiers,  goldsmiths,  bakers,  carpenters, 
and  many  other  industries,  not  only  in  the  great  cities 
but  in  small  and  remote  towns. 


i66  SOCIAL  GLIMPSES.  [chap.  ix. 

The  process  of  gaining  such  privileges,  in  perpetuation 
and  extension  of  Saxon  usages,  is  by  no  means  clear.  It 
certainly  was  not  fully  completed  during  the  Norman 
period.  Yet  the  large  number  of  Charters  granted 
before  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century  show  that  the 
policy  of  encouraging  the  growing  trading  class  was  fully 
recognised  in  England,  as  it  was  on  the  Continent. 
But  the  immediate  object  was  more  defined.  To 
strengthen  themselves  against  the  baronage,  the  Norman 
kings  after  William  I.  conceded  certain  trade  privileges 
and  popular  rights  ;  thus,  by  an  implied  if  not  an  avowed 
bargain,  securing  the  gratitude  and  affection  of  merchants 
and  handicraftsmen.  All  such  concessions  were  pur- 
chased at  a  high  price  in  hard  cash.  They  had  to  be 
confirmed  at  every  accession  to  the  throne,  with  the 
inevitable  accompaniment  of  additional  payments  ;  until 
rendered  needless  by  the  power  and  wealth  cf  the  towns. 
How  well  and  loyally  they  repaid  the  confidence  reposed 
in  them,  and  the  concessions  and  immunities  granted, 
appears  in  the  history  cf  the  country  under  Henry  H. 
and  his  successors  ;  down  to  the  time  of  Edward  I.  It  is 
the  record  of  persistent  struggles ;  out  of  which  came 
at  length  a  constitutional  government  and  the  securing 
of  national  rights. 

London  took  a  foremost  place  in  these  struggles.  It 
had  continued  to  grow  in  population  and  in  wealth  ;  and 
its  commercial  and  political  influence  developed  in  pro- 
portion. The  Charter  of  Henry  I.  confirmed  ancient 
rights,  jurisdictions,  privileges,  and  customs.  It  was 
followed  by  other  dearly-bought  Charters,  exempting 
the  citizens  from  certain  tolls,  dues,  and  commercial 
imposts ;  and  granting  them  leave  to  manage  their  own 
affairs  and  to  elect  their  own  Mayor.  Assemblies,  such 
as  hustings,  folk-motes,  and  ward-motes,  which  had  come 
down  from  Saxon  times,  were  perpetuated ;  as  was 
the  law  or  usage  in  the  succession  of  land.  From  this, 
even  the  King  was  not  exempt ;  so  far  as  concerned 
royal  possessions  within  the  City  bounds  ;  beyond  which, 
also,  the  men  of  London  were  not  to  be  summoned  in 
any  cause.  The  Sheriff  and  the  Justiciar — afterwards 
known  as  the  Recorder — were  to  be  of  their  own  choos- 
ing.    The  former  had  jurisdiction  over  the  remainder  o\ 


A.D.  I000-I2OO.]      TOWN  CHARTERS.  167 

the  county  of  Middlesex ;  which  was  held  in  farm  of  the 
King  and  his  heirs.  This  continued  until  the  year  i888, 
when  new  arrangements  were  made  by  the  County 
Councils  Act  in  the  Shrievalty ;  and  the  sanction  of  the 
Crown  is  now  required  to  enable  the  Recorder  and 
Common  Serjeant,  the  chief  judicial  officers,  to  perform 
their  duties.  With  such  recent  modifications,  the  citizens 
of  London  have  continued  to  exercise  for  more  than 
seven  hundred  years,  amidst  all  the  mutations  of  ages 
and  the  cataclysms  of  civil  war,  the  ancient  municipal 
rights  conferred  or  confirmed  in  Norman  times.  Other 
cities  and  towns  had  also  become  the  centres  of  manu- 
factures and  trade.  Exeter  was  renowned  for  the 
opulence  of  its  inhabitants.  There  were  many  thriving 
towns  in  Devonshire  and  the  South-West  of  England ; 
which  was  then,  and  remained  for  generations,  a  populous 
and  wealthy  part  of  the  country ;  using  the  phrase  in 
a  relative  sense.  Bristol,  Chester,  and  Southampton 
carried  on  a  large  trade  with  Ireland  and  with  the  Con 
tinent.  Norwich,  Lynn,  Lincoln,  York,  and  numerous 
other  places  are  repeatedly  mentioned  in  legal  and  his- 
torical documents  of  the  period,  as  busy,  enterprising, 
and  successful. 

The  example  thus  set  by  the  monarch  was  followed  by 
the  great  lords,  who  in  some  cases  granted  Charters  to 
towns  on  their  manors,  with  defined  privileges ;  and  in 
others  sold  the  right  to  hold  markets.  At  first,  it  was  a 
struggle  for  bare  existence  ;  such  as  the  purchase  of  leave 
to  go  in  and  out ;  to  resort  to  a  neighbouring  fair ;  to 
regulate  local  matters  in  an  elementary  fashion ;  to 
gather  wood  in  a  forest ;  to  cut  turf  on  a  common,  or 
pasture  sheep  upon  it ;  or  to  commute  personal  service 
in  harvest  time  by  a  money  payment.  As  a  town  pros- 
pered, the  jealousy  of  its  neighbours  was  aroused.  There 
were  encroachments  upon  alleged  common  lands,  or 
upon  rights  of  pannage  in  the  forests,  or  upon  the  use 
of  fords,  or  upon  the  fishing  in  a  stream,  and  the  use 
of  the  water-way  for  traffic  or  for  grinding.  Strenuous 
efforts  also  were  put  forth  to  secure  trade  privileges ; 
which  meant,  in  those  times  and  for  several  centuries, 
absolute  and  crushing  monopolies.  Freedom  of  trade 
between    contiguous    towns    and    villages    was    unknown. 


1 68  SOCIAL  GLIMPSES.  [chap.  ix. 

Protection,  so  far  from  being  a  modern  practice,  was 
then  carried  to  ridiculous  extremes.  Each  borough, 
hedged  within  itself,  jealously  watched  the  progress  of  its 
neighbours  and  treated  them  as  foes.  A  new  market,  or 
a  change  of  day  in  holding  it,  or  the  right  to  brew  ale, 
or  grind  corn,  or  bake  bread,  often  had  to  be  literally 
fought  for ;  even  when  a  Charter  had  been  purchased 
on   onerous   terms. 

Outside  the  trading  and  artisan  classes  in  the  towns, 
was  the  large  number  who  remained  for  generations  in  a 
servile  condition.  They  were  wedded  to  the  soil,  and 
were  at  the  mercy  of  its  lords.  Political  rights  they  had 
none.  Their  socinl  position  was  as  degraded  as  that  of 
the  helots  in  Lacedcemonia.  Contemporary  writers 
seldom  allude  to  them ;  but  from  such  stray  hints  and 
brief  notices  as  exist,  their  state  appears  to  have  deterio- 
rated for  nearly  three  centuries.  The  Villein,  as  he  was 
termed  in  Norman  and  early  Plantagenet  times,  was  in  a 
worse  condition  than  the  serfs  of  earlier  days.  He  had 
no  rights  of  property  as  against  his  lord.  He  could  not 
by  a  payment  of  money  redeem  any  services  claimed,  for 
he  was  held  not  to  have  full  possession  of  anything.  It 
has  been  argued  that  this  did  not  constitute  actual 
slavery,  because,  while  the  lord  had  absolute  rights  over 
the  villein,  he  had  no  actual  property  in  him,  and  could 
not  therefore  sell  him  in  the  market.  This  is  a  distinc- 
tion without  a  difference,  and  is  a  specimen  of  the  special 
pleading  so  delightful  to  the  pedantic  legal  mind. 
"Villein"  is  the  French  form  of  the  Latin  villanus ;  which 
meant,  etymologically,  nothing  more  than  the  inhabitant 
of  a  w7/,  or  township.  At  the  time  of  the  Norman 
invasion,  and  long  subsequeritly,  it  signified  a  tenant 
holding  land  under  a  lord,  in  consideration  of  certnin 
rents,  produce,  or  agricultural  services.  The  legal  term 
for  such  was  villeins  regardant.  They  were  annexed  to 
the  land,  and  changed  masters  with  every  sale  or  transfer 
of  the  property.  There  were  others,  whose  services  were 
more  onerous,  whose  position  was  more  dependent,  and 
who  were  little,  if  anything,  above  the  state  of  bondsmen. 
They  were  bought  and  sold,  irrespective  of  land.  Their 
goods  were  held  and  their  movements  were  regulated 
merely   by   the    lord's   permission.     Early  lawyers  always 


A.D.  I000-I200.]    MANORIAL  COURTS.  169 

speak  of  these  as  villeins  in  (^ross,  or  "  villeins  by  blood," 
and  are  careful  to  discriminate  between  service  due  in 
respect  of  land  and  the  personal  condition  of  the  holder. 
By  later  writers  this  was  overlooked  or  confused. 

One  result  is  the  extraordinary  and  inaccurate  defini- 
tion of  copyholders,  given  by  such  an  authority  as  Black- 
stone  ('  Commentaries,'  ii.  95),  who  says,  they  are  "  in 
truth,  no  other  than  villeins,  who,  by  a  long  series  of  im- 
memorial encroachments  on  the  lord,  have  at  last  estab- 
lished a  customary  right  to  those  estates  which  before 
were  held  absolutely  at  the  lord's  will."  The  precise 
fact  is  the  reverse  of  this.  By  a  long  series  of  encroach- 
ments and  fictions,  the  lords  of  manors,  and  lawyers 
acting  for  the.m,  have  deluded  people  into  the  belief  that 
the  lord's  will  or  caprice  was  the  origin  of  customary 
rights  which  were  really  absolute,  and  thus  independent 
of  him.  Hence  it  is  easy  to  understand  how,  even  in  that 
age,  the  common  people  were  subject  to  the  rule — often 
a  merciless  despotism — of  their  feudal  lords.  The  land 
was  still  dotted  with  castles  at  every  ford  and  bridge ;  at 
the  intersection  of  great  roads ;  and  on  every  com- 
manding point.  These  castles,  even  after  the  destruction 
of  many  built  during  the  troublous  times  of  Stephen's 
reign,  were  the  abodes  of  men  who  exercised  criminal 
jurisdiction  from  which,  practically,  there  was  no  appeal, 
and  who  immured  obnoxious  persons,  in  default  of  paying 
heavy  and  arbitrary  fees,  tolls,  and  fines,  in  their  private 
dungeons,  or  left  them  to  swing  and  rot  on  their  private 
gallows.  Manorial  courts  were  engines  of  oppression  and 
tyranny,  where  plunder  was  extorted  under  the  guise  of 
fines  for  imaginary  offences  ;  and,  though  greatly  curbed 
and  modified,  they  have  by  no  means  ceased  to  exist. 

Of  the  million  and  a  half  of  people  who  are  reasonably 
estimated  to  have  inhabited  England  at  this  period,  a 
considerable  proportion — perhaps  nearly  one-third — were 
in  a  condition  of  virtual  serfdom.  Those  who  are  dis- 
posed to  listen  to  romantic  and  illusory  tales  about 
Merry  England,  and  "  the  good  old  times,"  should 
remember  this  fact.  At  the  commencement  of  what 
may  be  regarded  as  the  era  of  true  English  history,  the 
mass  of  the  labourers  were  in  a  state  of  abject  wretched- 
ness,  if  not   of  actual    bondage.     The   narrative   of  the 


I70  SOCIAL  GLIMPSES.  [chap.  ix. 

changes  in  their  political  and  social  position,  though 
exhibiting,  on  the  whole,  progressive  amelioration,  is 
lamentably  slow  and  imperfect ;  with  frequent  recessions. 
But  in  process  of  time,  if  the  lord  of  the  soil  treated  the 
villein  as  a  freeman,  by  vesting  in  him  the  ownership  of 
land,  or  by  accepting  feudal  homage,  or  by  entering  into 
an  obligation  under  seal,  or  by  pleading  in  an  ordinary 
action,  the  law  held  that  he  could  never  afterwards 
retract,  and  treat  the  man  as  a  mere  villein.  These  miti- 
gations of  servile  tenure  helped,  in  conjunction  with 
other  circumstances  to  be  detailed,  to  effect  a  marvellous 
social  revolution.  The  subject  of  villenage  perpetually 
arises  down  to  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century,  in 
connection  with  the  Statutes  of  Labourers,  and  with 
such  popular  outbreaks  as  those  of  William  Fitz-Osbert, 
or  Longbeard,  in  1196,  and  of  Wat  Tiler,  in  138  e  ;  when 
the  abolition  of  slavery  was  formally  demanded  and 
conceded.  True,  the  promise  was  cancelled  as  soon  as 
the  panic  was  over ;  but,  before  the  rising  under  Jack 
Cade,  in  1450,  a  mighty  change  had  been  silently  effected, 
and  slavery  had  ceased.  The  Church  discouraged  it, 
as  was  shown  in  the  fourth  Chapter,  and  she  interposed 
to  check  the  violence  of  feudal  quarrels.  She  set  up 
a  public  conscience  in  the  affairs  of  nations,  which 
operated  beneficially  until  overpowered  by  latent  corrup- 
tions within  her  own  pale. 

It  is  difficult  to  imagine  a  more  rigid  and  minute 
police  and  judicial  system  than  the  one  that  existed  in 
England  during  the  period  under  review,  and  down  to  a 
later  age.  By  a  perpetuation  of  the  customs  of  earlier 
times,  every  town  and  every  village  was  answerable  for 
its  inhabitants,  and  every  lord  for  his  vassals  and  tenants. 
Trade  guilds  were  interested  in  the  conduct  and  the 
fortunes  of  their  members.  A  strange  comer  in  a  place, 
unless  entitled  to  bear  arms,  or  a  cleric,  was  required  to 
enter  and  leave  his  host's  house  or  the  inn  by  daylight. 
He  could  not  be  harboured  for  more  than  a  single  night 
out  of  his  own  tithing.  Twice  a  year,  the  County  Court 
instituted  a  rigid  inquiry  whether  fugitive  serfs  were 
within  its  jurisdiction.  The  only  chance  for  a  runawav, 
or  for  any  one  wishful  to  rise  out  of  a  lowly  condition, 
was  to  take  refuge  in  a  large  town.     This,  however,  was 


A.D.  I000-I200.]     MUTE  SUFFERING.  171 

not  easy  of  attainment.  The  town  had  a  kind  of 
personaHty  ;  with  rights  similar  to  those  of  a  feudal  lord. 
Those  rights  were  exclusive  and  selfish,  and  were  jealously 
exercised  by  a  trading  oligarchy,  who  enforced  local 
rules  and  customs  that  had  all  the  authority  of  law. 
Outside  these  privileged  traders,  with  their  guilds  and 
mysteries,  were  the  mere  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of 
water.  Existing  burgesses  were  indisposed,  moreover,  to 
ehare  their  franchises  with  strangers  who  had  nothing  to 
bring  into  the  common  stock,  and  who  might  prove 
to  be  incumbrances.  These  were  the  people  whose  lives 
were  precarious.  Like  the  agrarian  toilers,  they  had  no 
rights,  and  little  or  no  property.  They  were  of  no 
account  in  municipal  or  general  politics.  They  rotted 
and  perished  and  were  forgotten  in  seasons  of  drought, 
famine,  or  pestilence.  They  were  thrust  aside  and 
trodden  down  pitilessly  by  knights  and  burghers  in  times 
of  war.  They  passed  away  ;  their  moans  and  sufferings 
were  unheeded  ;  they  were  wretched,  oppressed,  helpless, 
and  dared  not  speak  ;  and  History,  as  then  written,  took 
no  concern  with  them,  but  disdained  to  record  "  the  short 
and  simple  annals  of  the  poor." 


CHAPTER  X. 

CONSTITUTIONAL  AND   LEGAL   DEVELOPMENTS. 
A.D.    1 1  54-1189. 

Less  than  a  century  elapsed  between  the  hostile  landing 
of  William  of  Normandy  in  Pevensey  Bay  and  the 
installation  in  1154  of  what  is  commonly  known  as  the 
Plantagenet  Line.  Four  monarchs  of  alien  race,  speech, 
manners,  and  habits  had  occupied  the  English  throne. 
This  was  regarded  by  three  of  them  merely  as  au 
appanage  to  the  much  larger  Continental  dominions, 
where  their  interests  chiefly  centred,  and  where  the 
greater  part  of  their  lives  was  spent.  Just  as  the  first 
and  second  Georges,  who  were  brought  here  six  centuries 
later  from  Hanover,   with    their    ungainly  mistresses    and 


172    CONSTITUTIONAL  DEVELOPMENTS,  [chap.  X. 

their  needy  and  greedy  courtiers,  could  understand  but 
little  and  spoke  less  ot"  the  language  of  this  country,  so 
was  it  with  the  Norman  and  early  English  monarchs. 
French  was  the  speech  of  the  Court,  and  its  tastes, 
sympathies,  and  aims  were  foreign  to  those  of  the  people. 
Strictly  speaking,  Henry  II.  (b.  1133,  r.  11 54-1 189)  was 
the  founder  of  the  Angevin  dynasty  ;  for  the  word  Plan- 
tagenet — from  the  planta  genista,  or  sprig  of  flowering 
broom,  originally  worn  as  a  badge — was  not  used  as  a 
descriptive  surname  for  the  family  until  the  fifteenth 
century.  Nor  was  he,  though  ruling  over  England, 
Normandy,  and  Aquitaine,  nationally  identified  with  any 
one  of  these  countries,  and  his  subjects  were  aliens  and 
strangers  to  one  another.  Henry's  position,  like  that  of 
his  predecessors,  was  that  of  a  puissant  French  prince, 
who  regarded  this  country  as  a  dependency.  To  its 
people,  he  was  "  the  King  beyond  the  sea  " ;  as  William 
Fitz-Stephen  says  in  his  '  Life  of  Becket,'  to  whom  he 
was  clerk  during  the  Chancellorship. 

Another  incidental  illustration  of  the  alien  feeling 
towards  Henry  11.  appears  in  his  nickname  of  Curtmantel, 
from  the  short  Angevin  cape  worn  on  the  shoulders ; 
stamping  him  as  a  foreigner  among  both  the  English 
and  the  Norman  knights,  with  their  flowing  fur-lined 
cloaks.  His  prolonged  absences  abroad  gave  rise  to  much 
trouble  and  delay,  in  the  frequent  necessity  for  submitting 
cases  to  his  personal  decision.  Writers  of  the  time  con- 
tinually complain  of  this.  They  narrate,  evidently  from 
unhappy  experience,  the  discomfort,  expense,  and  danger 
to  which  officials  and  suitors  were  put  in  having  to  cross 
the  Channel  in  all  weather,  in  the  cockle-shell  boats,  not 
larger  than  fishing-smacks,  which  formed  the  only 
means  of  transport.  The  affairs  of  the  King's  Con- 
tinental possessions  were  intricate  and  important ;  in- 
volving habitual  residence  there.  He  was  Count  of 
Anjou,  which,  with  Touraine,  he  inherited  from  his 
father;  and  Duke  of  Normandy,  which,  with  Maine, 
was  derived  from  his  mother.  Through  his  brother,  he 
governed  Brittany,  of  which,  as  Duke  of  Normandy, 
he  was  also  feudal  lord.  By  his  marriage,  at  nineteen, 
with  Eleanor,  he  added  the  vast  territory  known  as 
Aquitaine,  whose  extent    surpassed    that    of   his   Norman 


A.D.  1 1 54- 1 1 89-]   NEW  CHA  R  TER  OF  LIBER  TIES.    1 73 

and  Angevin  dominions.  Combined,  all  these  were 
nearly  double  the  size  of  England.  Aquitaine  com- 
prised Guienne — ^a  corruption  of  the  former  name — ■ 
and  Gascony ;  Poitou,  Limousin,  and  Perigord ;  with 
claims  of  suzerainty  over  Toulouse  and  Auvergne. 

Thus  he  held  the  richest  and  most  beautiiul  provinces 
of  the  West  and  South-VVest  of  France,  from  Nantes  to 
the  Pyrenees ;  a  territory  four  times  larger  than  was 
ruled  at  that  time  by  the  Kings  of  France.  This  led 
to  incessant  complications,  disputes,  and  wars.  The 
nominal  vassal  was,  in  reality,  far  greater  than  his  feudal 
lord,  who  was  hemmed  in  by  his  subordinate,  and  had 
access  only  to  small  portions  of  the  Mediterranean  and 
the  North  Sea.  But  Henry  held  his  straggling  possessions 
by  different  titles,  and  his  right  to  many  of  them  was 
challenged.  Moreover,  there  was  no  common  bond 
uniting  the  miscellaneous  districts  within  his  titular  rule. 
The  character  and  habits  of  the  people  differed,  like  their 
respective  climates  and  the  products  of  the  soil.  Most  of 
his  time  was  spent,  and  his  energies  and  skill  were 
tasked,  in  endeavouring  to  weld  these  heterogeneous 
interests,  and  in  laborious  and  fruitless  attempts  to  build 
up  an  unwieldy  empire  out  of  such  diverse  materials. 
At  numerous  points  his  scattered  territories  impinged 
upon  Flanders,  upon  the  Empire,  and  upon  Spain — then 
emerging  from  Moorish  bondage — as  well  as  upon 
France,  with  which  he  was  intimately  identified.  He 
was  more  of  a  European  magnate  than  a  ruler  of 
England,  which  saw  him  for  only  a  little  more  than  one- 
third  of  the  time  during  his  thirty-five  years'  reign. 
However,  he  hastened  to  his  insular  kingdom  when 
tidings  came  of  the  death  of  Stephen.  The  coronation 
took  place  at  Winchester,  on  December  19,  11 54,  amidst 
much  pomp  and  splendour,  and  before  an  immense  con- 
course then  attending  the  winter  session  of  the  Witan  ; 
which  does  not  appear  to  have  been  convened  during 
the  recent  troublous  times.  Weary  alike  of  anarchy  and 
of  the  tyrannous  rule  of  powerful  nobles,  the  nation 
hailed  the  advent  to  the  throne  of  one  who  had  no 
rivals,  either  by  alleged  heirship  or  by  force  of  arms. 
The  turbulent  barons  were  curbed.  Those  who  openly 
resisted    were    crushed.       A    Charter    of    Liberties   was 


174   CONSTITUTIONAL  DEVELOPMENTS,  [chap.  x. 

granted  ;  confirming  those  which  had  been  enjoyed  in 
preceding  reigns.  Popular  opinion  was  beginning  to 
assert  itself  ih  unmistakable  and  potent  forms.  William 
of  Malmesbury  quotes  Vox  populi,  vox  Dei,  as  a  proverb 
of  which  the  significance  was  then  well  understood. 
Gradually,  out  of  the  exigencies  of  the  time,  there  arose 
modified  forms  of  practical  administration,  as  public 
affairs  settled  and  consolidated.  Henry  was  aided  by 
sagacious  and  competent  administrators,  such  as  the 
circumstances  required  and  developed  ;  for  the  imminent 
occasion  always  produces  fitting  instruments.  Three 
groups  of  events  have  to  be  considered  ;  relating  to  the 
settlement  of  the  judicature,  to  ecclesiastical  affairs,  and 
to  Ireland.  These  were  of  deep  and  lasting  importance  ; 
far  beyond  the  projects  in  which  Henry  was  absorbed  on 
the  Continent,  and  into  which  it  is  needless  to  enter  at 
any  length. 

Three  conflicting  systems  of  jurisprudence  obtained  in 
England,  besides  innumerable  local  customs  ;  varying  in 
their  character,  but  having  the  force  of  tradition  and 
usage.  The  ancient  Common  Law  had  come  down  from 
the  Saxon  era  ;  and  the  general  sentiment  was  opposed 
to  its  codification.  What  had  grown  up  loosely  was  left 
vague  and  indeterminate.  There  had  been  attempts  at 
the  formation  of  Codes,  as  already  described,  but  these 
only  asserted  general  principles  which  might  guide  future 
decisions.  Consentaneously  with  this,  had  grown  up  the 
Canon  Law  of  the  Church ;  originally  based  on  the 
Bible,  the  glosses  of  the  Fathers,  and  the  decisions  of 
General  Councils.  Then  there  was  during  the  twelfth 
century  a  great  revival  on  the  Continent  of  the  study  of 
the  old  Roman  Civil  Law ;  with  some  reflex  influence 
upon  this  country.  Professional  lawyers  admired  it  as 
a  philosophical  system  ;  but  the  nation,  as  a  whole, 
tenacious  of  ancient  customs,  and  the  barons,  in  par- 
ticular, inflamed  by  recent  feuds  with  the  clergy,  were 
jealous  of  any  infringement  of  the  Common  Law.  The 
great  prominence  given  by  the  Normans  to  the  extreme 
theory  of  royalty,  and  to  its  supposed  dominant  powers, 
was  certainly  not  derived  from  aristocratic  Saxon  times, 
or  from  any  disposition  of  the  Church  to  exalt  civil 
rulers.      Li   a  general   sense,    it   may   be   said  that   the 


A.D.  11S4-11S9.]  JUDICATURE.  iT^ 

Crown  and  its  lawyers  favoured  the  Civil  Law ;  the 
barons  and  the  people  the  Common  Law ;  while  the 
Church  stood  by  its  Canons,  to  which  were  subsequently 
added  the  Decretals,  derived  from  the  opinions  of  the 
Fathers,  Popes,  and  early  Councils. 

There  arose,  however,  what  may  be  described  as  a 
kind  of  national  usage,  composed  of  Legatine  and 
Provincial  Constitutions  adapted  to  the  particular 
necessities  of  the  English  Church.  The  former  were 
ecclesiastical  laws  enacted  in  National  Synods  held  under 
Cardinals  Otho  and  Othobon,  Legates  from  Gregory  IX. 
and  Clement  IV.,  in  the  reign  of  Henry  III.,  about  the 
years  1220  and  1268.  The  latter  are  principally  the 
decrees  of  Provincial  Synods  held  under  various  Arch- 
bishops of  Canterbury,  from  the  time  of  Langton  to 
that  of  Chicheley,  in  the  reign  of  Henry  V. ;  and  adopted 
by  the  province  of  York  in  the  following  reign.  When 
Vacarius,  a  famous  Lombard  scholar  and  jurist,  came  to 
Oxford  in  1149,  and  lectured  on  the  Institutes  of 
Justinian,  he  brought  with  him  treatises  on  the  Civil  and 
Canon  Law.  John  of  Salisbury  states  that  the  feeling 
against  them  was  so  strong,  that  the  copies  were  torn  up 
or  burned ;  and  the  lecturer  had  to  withdraw.  Yet  the 
revived  study  of  Roman  Law  had  an  influence  on  the 
spread  of  orderly  and  equitable  jurisprudence.  At  a 
later  period,  Bacon  declared  that  more  wisdom  was 
contained  in  Aristotle's  few  chapters  on  laws  than  in  the 
whole  civil  code.  Remembering  all  this,  it  is  easy  to 
understand  the  action  of  the  English  barons.  As  a 
system,  the  philosophical  aspect  did  not  concern  them. 
As  practical  men,  they  saw  that  the  country  was  suffering 
from  conflicting  tribunals.  They  demanded  the  main- 
tenance of  what  they  regarded  as  the  ancient  and 
approved  laws  of  England ;  meaning  thereby  that  no 
fresh  intricacies  should  be  introduced,  and  especially  that 
the  foreign  priest  should  not  win  another  domain  from 
their  people. 

The  earliest  known  legal  treatise,  'Tractatus  de 
Legibus  et  Consuetudinibus  Regni  Angli?e,'  was  compiled 
by  Ranulf  de  Glanvill,  the  Grand  Justiciar,  in  the  latter 
part  of  the  reign  of  Henry  II.  It  was  only  a  book  of 
procedure ;  but  was  followed  in  the  next  century  by  such 


176   CONSTITUTIONAL  DEVELOPMENTS,  [chap.  x. 

legal  works  as  those  of  Bracton  and  Fleta.  The  author- 
ship of  the  latter  treatise  is  unknown  ;  but  the  name  is 
derived  from  its  having  been  written  in  the  Fleet  prison, 
about  the  year  1285,  from  internal  evidence.  Sir  Henry 
Maine  ('  Ancient  Law,'  p.  82)  comments  •  on  the 
plagiarisms  of  Bracton,  in  the  time  of  Henry  IH.,  who 
imposed  on  his  countrymen  as  a  compendium  of  pure 
English  law  a  treatise  of  which  the  entire  form,  and  one- 
third  of  the  contents,  were  directly  borrowed  from  the 
'  Corpus  Juris,'  and  this  at  a  time  and  in  a  country 
where  the  systematic  study  of  Roman  Law  was 
proscribed.  Judges  and  lawyers  began  to  occupy  them- 
selves with  the  scientific  study  and  arrangement  of 
decisions.  Richard  Fitz-Nigel,  Treasurer  of  the  Ex- 
chequer and  Bishop  of  London — the  grandson  of  Roger 
of  Salisbury,  who  originated  the  administration  of  the 
Exchequer  Court,  which  continued  in  his  family  for  more 
than  a  century — Roger  de  Hoveden,  the  King's  clerk  ; 
Richard  de  Lucy,  who  was  Chief  Justiciar  for  twenty- 
five  years  ;  and  Glanvill,  who  succeeded  him  and  died  in 
1 190,  are  among  the  legal  luminaries  of  that  age. 
Precedents  set  by  such  distinguished  occupants  of  the 
Bench  form  an  important  part  of  that  Common  Law  of 
England  which  has  been  slowly  maturing  for  centuries. 
Their  work  can  be  better  appreciated  now  that  it  is 
judged  by  ultimate  and  unintended  results.  It  pressed 
heavily  at  the  time,  and  was  regarded  by  those  outside 
the  official  circle  as  a  new  and  terrible  engine  of  regal 
extortion. 

Glanvill  makes  Henry  appear  just,  discreet,  and 
merciful ;  renowned  for  equity  and  for  protecting  the 
poor  and  lowly.  Sober  truth  compels  the  alternative 
portraiture  of  a  capricious,  dictatorial,  passionate,  and 
sometimes  cruel  King ;  subverting  for  personal  and 
diplomatic  ends  both  natural  justice  and  the  ancient 
customs  of  the  realm.  No  one  was  so  exalted  as  to  be 
beyond  the  reach  of  his  arbitrary  power,  or  so  insignificant 
as  to  escape  his  searching  tyranny.  He  was  energetic, 
prompt,  resolute ;  always  in  motion ;  rapidly  traversing 
the  country  during  his  occasional  and  brief  residence  ; 
observing,  hearing,  and  deciding  innumerable  cases.. 
But  even  without  the  strain  upon  his  time  and  energy 


A.D.  1 1 54-1 1 89-]      THE  LAWS  DELAY.  ill 

caused  by  his  vast  foreign  dominions,  and  the  need  for 
his  frequent  and  prolonged  visits  to  the  Continent,  he 
could  not  have  accomplished  all  that  his  eulogists  claim 
for  him.  Between  the  two  or  three  customary  gather- 
ings of  the  Great  Council  every  year,  there  were  frequent 
meetings  of  what  was,  in  effect,  an  inner  Council,  or,  to 
employ  a  modern  phrase,  a  Standing  Committee.  There 
are  glimpses  of  such  an  advisory  body  prior  to  the 
Norman  days  ;  but  after  these  it  took  practical  shape.  It 
is  the  origin  of  what  is  so  constantly  spoken  of  in  the 
Records  as  the  Curia  jRegts.  It  was  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  Great  Council,  just  as  the  Cabinet  was 
formed  long  subsequently  out  of  the  Privy  Council. 
The  entire  body  was  too  large  and  unwieldy ;  and  urgent 
matters  aroso  in  the  intervals  of  the  formal  meetings,  and 
had  to  be  promptly  dealt  with. 

^  A  remark  already  made,  that  the  Norman  phrase,  the 
King's  Court,  meant,  in  reality,  to  a  large  extent,  the 
royal  despotism,  is  applicable  to  the  legal  administration 
of  those  rulers  who,  for  convenience'  sake,  may  be  styled 
the  Early  Plantagenets.  The  delay,  trouble,  expense, 
uncertainty,  vexation,  and  the  wrongs  endured  in 
attempts  to  obtain  justice,  sound  incredible  to  modern 
ears.  Even  now,  Themis  is  too  often  halt  and  deaf,  as 
well  as  blind,  and  there  are  still  too  many  scandalous 
instances  of  the  law's  delay,  technicality,  and  costliness, 
and  of  the  proverbial  obscurity  of  its  oracular  deliver- 
ances. Seven  hundred  years  ago,  things  were  far  worse. 
Suitors  had  to  undertake  toilsome  journeys  and  perilous 
voyages,  at  enormous  cost,  to  obtain  from  the  monarch  a 
license,  or  a  writ,  or  the  royal  seal,  as  an  indispensable 
preliminary  to  any  procedure.  Wealthy  defendants  and 
wrong-doers  could  interpose  obstacles  ;  or  purchase  from 
legal  pedants  their  aid  in  raising  technical  flaws  and 
faults  ;  or  could  make  away  with  inconvenient  witnesses  ; 
or  bribe  the  judges  and  other  officials.  The  hearing  of  a 
cause  might  be  postponed  again  and  again,  almost  in- 
definitely, or  appointed  for  a  distant  place,  after  all  the 
evidence  had  been  collected  at  great  cost  and  labour. 
When,  after  such  wearisome  and  heart-breaking  delays, 
judgment  was  procured — and  many  abandoned  their 
rights  in  despair,  long  before  that  stage — it  could  not  be 
14 


178   CONSTITUTIONAL  DEVELOPMENTS,  [chap.  X. 

enforced  without  more  fees,  presents,  and  bribes  to  a  hungry 
ciowd  of  Court  harpies  and  myrmidons,  from  the  Queen 
downwards.  Part  of  her  dowry  was  wrung  out  in  this 
fashion.  At  every  stage  in  an  action,  usage  prescribed 
or  power  extorted  a  present  from  both  parties  to  tlie 
suit :  an  objectionable  practice  that  continued  down  to 
the  time  of  Lord  Bacon.  Money  was  omnipotent  in  the 
royal  courts.  Officials  were  expert  in  those  times  in 
devising  difficulties,  tardy  processes,  and  vexatious 
adjournments,  for  the  advantage  of  one  side,  and  in 
removing  them  on  the  other ;  always  for  a  valuable 
considerat  on.  Efforts  have  been  made  to  explain  away 
all  this,  and  to  make  it  appear  that  such  payments  were 
not  made  or  received  as  bribes  ;  but  the  evidence  to  the 
contrary  is  overwhelming.  The  spirit  of  resistance,  even 
when  aroused,  was  not  sufficiently  strong,  or  was  not 
under  guidance  sufficiently  wise,  to  impose  adequate 
restraints  upon  arbitrary  authority.  In  due  time,  safe- 
guards arose  to  the  Constitution.  Monarchs  learned  the 
salutary  lesson  that  the  people  also  possess  rights,  which 
are  not  to  be  withheld  or  violated  with  impunity.  To 
remedy  such  flagrant  evils,  and  to  put  a  stop  to  the 
scandalous  sale  or  restraint  of  justice,  was  one  of  the 
main  objects  of  the  Great  Charter  of  121  5. 

Originally,  the  King's  Court  literally  involved  the 
presence  of  the  monarch,  and  was  itinerant ;  from  the 
exigencies  of  the  times.  The  King  was  a  great  land- 
owner. Payments  were  made  chiefly  in  kind,  so  that 
he  had  to  move  from  one  place  to  another  with  a 
numerous  retinue  to  consume  his  rents.  Wherever  he 
went,  complaints  were  heard  on  matters  with  which  the 
local  courts  could  not  deal,  or  had  adjudicated  unsatis- 
factorily. A  swift  decision  was  taken,  and  summary 
procedure,  that  was  not  always  justice,  was  administered. 
To  enforce  the  decisions  had  been  a  constant  aim  with 
such  sagacious  and  upright  rulers  as  Alfred.  Judicial 
business  absorbed  much  of  his  time  ;  and  although,  as 
was  inevitable,  there  were  occasional  murmurings  and 
resistance,  these  arose  from  wrong-doers,  and  from 
privileged  persons  who  expected  immunities  that  he 
would  not  grant.  He  was  occupied  in  the  correction  of 
injustice,  says  Asser,  his  friend  and  biographer,  "  day  and 


A.D.  1 1 54- 1 1 89.]   EXCHEQUER  COURT.  179 

night,  for  in  that  whole  kingdom  the  poor  had  no 
helpers,  or  but  few,  save  the  King  himself."  Under 
Angevin  rule,  the  Curia  Regis  became  in  a  more 
marked  degree  the  supreme  tribunal  of  judicature,  in 
which  the  monarch  was  aided  by  his  chief  counsellors. 
These  originally  comprised  all  the  tenants-in-chief  of  the 
Crown,  but  were  afterwards  restricted  to  certain  great 
officers  of  State,  and  specially  appointed  judges  from 
those  who  were  constantly  with  the  monarch.  Gradually 
their  powers  were  extended,  and  other  forms  and  names 
were  given,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Star  Chamber,  under 
Henry  VII.,  and  of  the  Judicial  Committee  of  Privy 
Council  in  later  times.  But  the  origin  of  many  of  the 
high  functionaries  is  involved  in  much  obscurity,  and 
has  been  the  theme  for  endless  conjecture  and  dispute. 
The  only  explanation  is  that  a  system  was  slowly 
formulated  as  necessity  arose. 

The  matters  dealt  with  were  varied  and  endless ; 
embracing  all  that  could  affect  the  royal  interests,  or  that 
came  up  by  appeal  from  local  courts.  Questions  relating 
to  the  ownership  of  land,  to  tenure,  heirship,  guardian- 
ship, assessments,  and  criminal  offences  of  all  kinds, 
were  heard  and  settled  in  this  way.  Owing  to  Henry's 
frequent  and  prolonged  absences  abroad,  Circuit  Courts 
were  established,  and  the  Barons  of  the  Exchequer  went 
out  as  Itinerant  Justices.  By  this  title  they  were  first 
called  in  1176  ;  but  it  was  only  the  extension  of  a  custom 
dating  back  for  a  long  period.  It  is  certain  that  there 
w'ere  Judicial  Eyres  early  in  the  twelfth  century,  and 
that  Commissions  had  been  frequently  issued  for  special 
purposes  ;  though  the  functions  and  status  of  the  judges 
cannot  now  be  defined,  for  lack  of  authentic  infor- 
mation. Most  suits  must  have  been  decided  before 
the  Sheriffs  in  the  County  Courts,  which  were  still  held 
for  their  ancient  purposes,  as  in  Saxon  times.  Various 
abuses  which  had  crept  into  them,  and  schemes  for 
illegal  exactions,  were  swept  away  before  the  reforming 
spirit  aroused  in  the  country.  This  led  to  the  appoint- 
ment of  occasional  judges,  superior  to  the  Sheriffs.  By 
the  middle  of  thje  twelfth  century,  the  judicial  work  of 
the  Curia  Regis  had  so  grown  that  the  King  and  his 
regular  assistants  could  pot  djspc^tch  jt.     As  a  matter  of 


I  So   CONSTITUTIONAL  DEVELOPMENTS,  [chap.  x. 

convenience  much  of  it  was  transferred  to  the  ofificers  of 
the  Exchequer  ;  a  phrase  that  first  occurs  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  L,  although  there  must  have  been  something  corre- 
spondent under  his  two  predecessors.  In  his  time,  pay- 
ments in  coin  of  royal  dues  began  to  supersede  the  ancient 
custom  of  payments  in  kind.  But  the  main  idea  comes 
from  the  days  of  Henry  H.  In  the  Exchequer  Court  was 
transacted  the  whole  fiscal  burliness  of  the  country.  The 
name  was  derived  from  the  chequered  cloth  on  the  table 
at  which  the  accounts  were  rendered.  The  officials, 
when  the  arrangements  came  to  be  perfected,  included  a 
Justiciar,  who  was  the  president,  a  Chancellor,  a  Con- 
stable, two  Chamberlains,  a  Treasurer,  and  a  Marshal, 
with  subordinate  functionaries.  Every  half  year,  at  Easter 
and  Michaelmas,  the  Exchequer  Court  met  in  the  palace 
of  Westminster.  Records  of  the  business  done,  of  the 
persons  appearing,  and  of  payments  received  and  made, 
were  carefully  kept.  The  Great  Roll  of  the  Pipe — so 
called  from  its  shape — as  made  by  the  Treasurer,  is  com- 
plete from  the  second  year  of  Henry  II.  ;  and  it  exists  in 
fragments  from  an  earlier  date.  The  Chancellor's  Roll, 
a  duplicate  of  this,  is  almost  perfect.  The  Sheriffs  of  the 
counties  made  their  returns  to  the  Barons  of  the  Ex- 
chequer, and  receipts  were  given  in  the  form  of  woodrn 
tallies.  These  were  long  slips,  with  notches  cut  in  the 
edges  to  denote  by  certain  shapes  the  sums  paid.  The 
slips  were  then  split  down  ;  one  half  being  given  to  the 
person  paying,  and  the  other  half  retained  in  the  Ex- 
chequer. When  both  were  produced,  they  had  to  tally, 
or  agree  in  the  notches.  The  object  of  this  practice, 
which  continued  until  1782,  like  the  indenture  on  the 
top  of  legal  parchments,  was  to  prevent  fraud.  A  vast 
accumulation  of  tallies,  used  for  heating  the  stoves  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  caused  the  destruction  of  the  Parliament 
buildings  in  October,  1834. 

Rents  from  Crown  lands,  their  produce  in  kind,  feudal 
dues  of  all  sorts,  taxes,  fines,  receipts  from  the  sale  of 
offices,  a  number  of  nondescript  payments,  and  not  a  few 
that  were  arbitrary,  had  to  be  minutely  accounted  for  in 
this  manner.  It  can  still  be  seen  from  existing  records 
how  narrowly  the  royal  officers  scrutinized  the  affairs  of 
every  man  who  possessed  any  property,  so  that  the  roya! 


A.D.  1 1 54- 1 1 S9.]    JUS TICES  ITINERANT.  1 8 1 

claims,  whether  actual  or  potential,  might  be  fully  dis- 
charged. Everything  was  made  to  contribute  to  the 
King's  revenue,  which  was  then  in  reality  the  personal 
matter  that  now  exists  only  as  a  ridiculous  verbal  fiction. 
'l"lius  the  Exchequer  was  the  chief  instrument  of  govern- 
ment, having  tentacles  that  were  in  perpetual  motion  on 
every  side,  solely  for  the  purpose  of  adding  to  the  royal 
purse.  It  was  not  in  human  nature  to  evade  any 
chance  of  escape  from  this  ubiquitous  and  prying  institu- 
tion. The  tone  of  public  morality  needs  to  be  heroic, 
and  even  saintly,  for  men  not  to  seek  to  escape  the  pay- 
ment of  taxes,  even  under  the  best  of  governments ;  much 
more  was  this  the  case  under  the  grasping  despotism  that 
prevailed  in  Norman  and  subsequent  times. 

The  Assize  of  Clarendon,  in  1166,  which  marks  an  im- 
portant judicial  epoch,  must  not  be  confounded  with  the 
Constitutions  of  Clarendon,  as  settled  two  years  earlier, 
mainly  for  other  purposes,  to  be  presently  referred 
to.  The  Assize  is  a  noteworthy  document.  It  was 
framed  in  a  Council  described  as  consisting  of  the 
archbishops — though  Becket  was  absent — the  bishops, 
abbots,  earls,  and  barons  of  all  England.  Twenty-two 
Articles  were  agreed  to,  and  were  furnished  to  the 
Justices  Itinerant  for  their  guidance.  The  first  six 
describe  the  manner  of  the  presentment  of  criminals ; 
perpetuating  and  extending  the  old  Common  Law  in  the 
matter  of  inquests  by  juries.  By  the  other  articles,  all 
men  were  required  to  attend  the  Courts ;  no  franchise 
might  exclude  the  Justices  from  the  discharge  of  their 
duties ;  no  one  might  entertain  a  stranger  without  being 
responsible  for  him ;  Sheriffs  were  to  assist  one  another 
in  the  capture  of  fugitives ;  and  other  measures  were 
designed  to  strengthen  the  royal  power  by  checking  that 
of  the  barons.  Ten  years  later,  in  11 76,  the  Assize  of 
Northampton  gave  fresh  and  enlarged  instructions.  In 
the  interval,  there  had  been  an  outbreak  of  discontented 
barons,  and  a  miniature  civil  war.  Some  of  the  Articles 
refer  to  this,  and  the  expanded  jurisdiction  arose  out  of 
political  complications.  The  general  instructions  for  the 
guidance  of  the  Justices  Itinerant  evince  what  were  theii 
primary  functions.  They  were  to  look  after  the  royal 
interests  to  the  utmost  of  their  ability;  to  ascertain  what 


1 82    CONSTITUTIONAL  DEVELOPMENTS,  [chap.  x. 

wards  ought  to  be  in  the  royal  guardianship,  with  the 
present  value  of  the  estates  and  the  persons  in  charge ; 
what  marriageable  females  were  at  the  disposal  of  the 
Crown,  and  the  rental  of  their  property;  what  livings 
were  in  the  royal  gift,  who  held  them,  and  the  annual 
value ;  what  lands  had  lapsed  through  forfeitures  and 
lack  of  heirs ;  what  encroachments  had  occurred  on  the 
royal  demesnes ;  the  fines  in  the  hands  of  Sheriffs  ;  and 
unclaimed  property  of  Jewish  usurers.  They  were  furthei 
to  inquire  into  the  coinage ;  markets  held  without 
license ;  burglaries,  outlawries,  and  other  crimes ;  and 
generally  into  everything  that  ought  to  be  made  to  yield 
dues  and  profits  to  the  King. 

This  recital  of  the  duties  imposed  upon  the  Justices 
Itinerant  shows  what  was  deemed  by  the  monarch  to  be 
the  most  important  part  of  their  functions.  Their  first 
and  foremost  duty  was  to  promote  his  interests,  to  main- 
tain and  extend  the  prerogative,  and  to  replenish  the 
royal  coffers ;  so  often  exhausted  by  royal  profligacy  and 
extravagance.  To  such  an  extent  was  this  the  case  in 
the  judicial  visitations  of  1166  and  the  following  years,, 
that  the  mechanism  ostensibly  employed  for  repressing 
crime  was  regarded,  not  unreasonably,  as  a  contrivance 
to  raise  money.  Nothing  can  justify  such  an  arrange- 
ment ;  and  it  is  not  surprising  that  loud  murmurs  were 
heard,  and  threats  of  open  resistance.  Abundant  testi- 
mony exists  in  proof  of  this  ;  and  the  evil  culminated  in 
the  next  reign.  New  laws  and  fresh  taxes  affecting  the 
community  required  the  sanction  of  the  Great  Council, 
which  was  supposed  to  represent  the  nation.  But  there 
was  no  security  for  individuals  against  acts  of  prerogative, 
such  as  modern  opinion  would  instantly  condemn  as 
being  arbitrary  and  tyrannical.  Much  of  the  legislation 
from  Norman  down  to  Stuart  times  consisted  of  unwar- 
rantable interferences  with  personal  liberty,  and  of 
vexatious  restrictions  on  industry,  trade,  and  commerce. 
Innocent  and  unintentional  violations  or  neglect  of 
merely  technical  rules  involved  heavy  fines.  Kingly 
authority  was  strained  to  the  utmost  for  the  sole  purpose 
of  filling  the  Exchequer.  Under  the  guise  of  legality, 
scandalous  injustice  was  often  done.  Modern  legislation 
has  been  largely  directed  to  the  repeal  of  mischievous 


A.D.  1 1 54-1189.]  SCUTAGE.  1S3 

and  meddling  enactments  of  former  times.  Every  great 
reform  which  has  been  effected,  has  consisted,  in  the 
main,  not  in  doing  something  new,  but  in  undoing  some- 
thing old  and  pernicious. 

One  useful  tendency  of  the  legal  procedure  consolidated 
in  this  reign  was  to  curtail  the  power  of  the  barons, 
by  restricting  and  overriding  their  local  jurisdiction. 
Hitherto,  they  had  been  petty  despots,  from  whose 
absolutism  there  was  virtually  no  appeal.  The  Norman 
kings  sought  to  overcome  this,  with  only  partial  success. 
Bacon  remarks, — "The  multiplying  of  nobility  and  other 
degrees  of  quality,  in  over-proportion  to  the  common 
people,  doth  speedily  bring  a  State  to  necessity;  and  so  doth 
likewise  an  overgrown  clergy,  for  they  bring  nothing  to 
the  stock."  Under  the  new  system.  Justices  Itinerant 
were  instructed  to  enter  every  baronial  court  and  fran- 
chise, and  were  empowered  to  take  cognizance  of  every 
relict  of  old  monopolies  and  immunities ;  such  as  raising 
troops,  levying  war,  coining  money,  and  exercising  local 
authority.  Not  immediately,  or  without  a  long  struggle, 
was  the  feudal  power  surrendered ;  but,  whether  intended 
or  not,  a  blow  was  administered  that  soon  proved  fatal. 
Feudalism  never  again  reared  its  head  so  high  as  to  be 
formidable  in  England.  It  continued  to  exist  as  the 
legal  machinery  of  land  tenure,  and  as  a  principle  of 
loyalty  and  national  cohesion.  As  a  system  of  govern- 
ment, so  far  as  this  had  prevailed  in  a  modified  form  for 
less  than  a  century,  it  was  virtually  at  an  end.  The 
executive  power  was  wrested  from  it  through  the  steady 
operation  of  the  courts  of  law,  and  its  military  strength 
was  subordinated  to  the  general  good. 

Another  step  in  this  process  of  lessening  baronial 
power  was  taken  by  the  introduction  of  the  system  of 
Scutage,  in  connection  with  the  Welsh  campaign  of 
1 157,  and  with  the  war  in  Toulouse  in  1159.  Already, 
the  prelates,  who  held  their  fiefs  subject  to  military 
service,  had  been  permitted  to  compound  by  a  money 
payment.  The  precedent  was  now  followed  and  extended. 
Vassals  bound  by  ancient  usage  to  personal  service  in  the 
field  for  a  given  number  of  days,  were  allowed  instead  to 
pay  a  fixed  sum  for  Scutage,  or  shield-money ;  usually  at 
the  rate  of  two  marks,  or  twenty-six  shillings  and  eight- 


1 84   CONSTITUTIONAL  DEVELOPMENTS,  [chap.  x. 

pence,  for  each  twenty  pounds  of  annual  value.  With  the 
money  thus  raised,  mercenary  troops  were  hired  for  the 
Continental  wars.  The  monarch  found  himself  at  the 
head  of  an  army  under  his  own  control,  but  maintained 
by  the  barons  and  knights.  When  they  attempted  a 
revolt  in  1173,  it  was  suppressed,  by  a  sort  of  ironical 
justice,  by  instruments  whom  they  had  unwittingly  pro- 
vided. No  armed  insurrection  of  the  barons,  as  a  class, 
and  for  their  exclusive  interest,  was  possible  in  subsequent 
times.  When  they  arose  successfully  against  the  regal 
tyranny  of  John,  it  was  at  the  head  of  the  people  of 
England,  for  objects  common  to  all,  and  under  the 
guidance  of  the  patriotic  English  Cardinal,  Stephen 
Langton.  There  were  further  contests  between  monarchs 
and  the  baronage,  until  the  latter  were  finally  and  for 
ever  shattered  by  the  Wars  of  the  Roses. 

Besides  the  lessening  of  baronial  power  by  subjecting 
local  courts  to  a  supreme  judicature,  and  by  the  levying 
of  Scutage,  a  third  step  was  taken  in  the  same  direction 
by  choosing  lawyers  and  subordinate  vassals  of  the  King 
for  the  office  of  Sheriff,  instead  of  continuing  to  bestow 
it  on  the  greater  barons  or  their  nominees.  Some  of 
them  had  acquired  by  custom  a  prescriptive  right ;  if  not 
hereditary  s^uccession.  They  frequently  exercised  their 
authority  in  an  arbitrary  manner  for  their  own  enrich- 
ment. Now,  they  were  set  aside,  and  their  places  filled 
from  a  class  likely  to  prove  more  tractable ;  under  rules 
and  an  authority  emanating  from  the  Curia  Regis  and 
the  Exchequer;  whose  provincial  jurisdiction  was  thus 
extended.  Towards  the  close  of  the  reign,  in  11 78,  the 
number  of  judges  was  reduced  to  five ;  two  clerics  and 
three  laymen ;  all  chosen  from  the  King's  household. 
Certain  matters  were  reserved  for  hearing  by  the  King 
in  Council.  At  a  later  period,  this  developed  into  the 
equitable  jurisdiction  of  the  Chancellor,  and  into  the 
judicial  functions  of  the  Privy  Council.  Finally,  in  1181, 
the  Assize  of  Arms  defined  more  precisely  the  military 
obligations  of  the  people  in  the  service  of  the  King 
and  the  defence  of  the  country.  It  declared  the  duty 
of  every  freeman  to  bear  arms.  Justices  Itinerant 
were  to  ascertain  through  the  "  lawful  men "  of  the 
Hundreds  and  towns  the  number  of  persons  under  the 


A.D.  1154-1189.]    NATIONAL  MILITIA.  185 

different  categories,  and  compel  them  to  take  oath  to 
furnish  themselves  with  specified  accoutrements.  Knights 
were  to  be  equipped  in  full  panoply ;  burghers  and 
simple  freemen  were  to  have  mail-coats,  steel  caps,  and 
spears.  These  were  to  be  kept  in  due  order ;  to  be  used 
solely  for  public  purposes ;  and  not  to  be  taken  out  of 
the  country  or  alienated  in  any  way.  This  system  of 
national  militia  was  a  revival  of  the  old  Fyrd,  and  was 
an  additional  effective  counterpoise  to  the  power  of  the 
barons.  I'here  was  no  paid  standing  army.  Every  man 
was  either  a  warrior  or  a  priest,  unless  maimed  in  some 
way.  This  explains  the  large  nominal  armies  so  often 
mentioned  during  the  Middle  Ages.  Their  real  strength, 
however,  did  not  consist  in  their  numbers.  Dependence 
was  chiefly  placed  on  the  iron-clad  knights  and  men-at- 
arms,  and,  at  a  later  period,  on  the  trained  archers. 
The  thousands  of  camp  attendants  and  followers  of  low 
degree,  if  referred  to  at  all  by  the  Chroniclers,  are  spoken 
of  in  terms  of  contempt  as  a  rabble  rout.  They  some- 
times describe  with  high  glee  how  mounted  warriors, 
clad  in  armour  of  proof,  rode  down  and  over  these 
people,  who  followed  their  lords  with  such  clumsy 
weapons  as  they  could  procure.  The  method  of  levy 
explains  also  how  huge  armies  melted  away  in  a  few 
weeks ;  for  when  the  allotted  term  of  service  had  expired 
the  men  returned  to  their  farms  and  industries. 

Before  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century,  the  functions 
of  the  Exchequer,  as  a  judicial  court,  were  defined  and 
settled  ;  as  is  fully  explained  by  Bishop  Stubbs  and  other 
constitutional  authorities.  The  figment  of  some  legal 
pedants,  set  forth  with  such  tedious  prolixity,  that  the 
monarch  had  been  from  time  immemorial,  if  not  from 
all  eternity,  as  by  prescriptive  right  from  Heaven,  the 
Fountain  of  Justice,  may  be  dismissed  with  contempt  as 
an  idle  dream.  He  became  so,  in  a  sense,  as  Freeman 
points  out,  not  by  inherent  right,  but  because  circum- 
stances conspired  with  inclination  to  arrogate  more  and 
more  executive  authority.  English  practical  common 
sense  is  gradually  brushing  aside  the  fantastic  subtleties 
and  pettifogging  devices  from  which  archaic  minds 
derive  nutriment.  The  immunity  of  jurors  in  their  find- 
ings,  even  against  the  direction  of  the  Bench,  was  not 


1 86  CHURCH  OR  STATE.  '  [chap.  x. 

legally  established  until  1670,  in  the  famous  case  of 
Bushel,  described  in  the  sixty-first  Chapter.  Trial  by 
jury  is  an  ancient,  a  sacred,  and  an  inalienable  right. 
When  it  originated,  and  who  devised  it,  cannot  be 
determined.  As  has  been  already  shown,  it  was  not  the 
invention  of  ^Elfred.  Nor  did  it  arise  in  its  present  form 
during  Norman  times.  What  are  known  as  Inquests  by 
Recognition,  in  the  compiling  of  Domesday  Book,  and 
in  the  Great  Assize  of  Henry  II.,  were  not  trials  by  jury 
in  the  modern  acceptation,  any  more  than  the  Com- 
purgators of  Saxon  times.  Those  jurors  gave  their 
verdict  as  witnesses,  from  facts  within  their  own  know- 
ledge, and  were  not  called  upon  to  determine  matters  of 
fact  from  testimony  laid  before  them.  In  a  general  sense, 
it  is  permissible  to  speak  of  the  system  as  existing  in  the 
time  of  Henry  II. ;  always  bearing  in  mind  the  essential 
points  of  difference  from  the  jury  of  the  present  day. 
It  was  a  growth  ;  and  the  full  development  was  not  seen 
for  generations.  To  determine  the  stages  is  as  impossible 
as  it  is  to  fix  the  dew-point. 

As  legal  processes  gradually  assumed  form  and  fixed- 
ness, the  custom  was  for  the  Justices  Itinerant  to  have 
"four  lawful  men"  impanelled  from  every  township,  and 
twelve  from  every  Hundred,  as  "  recognitors."  By  the 
close  of  the  reign  of  Henry  II.,  or  the  beginning  of  that 
of  Richard  I.,  four  sworn  knights,  summoned  for  the 
purpose  by  the  Sheriff,  chose  twelve  men,  who  were 
sworn  to  examine  into  disputed  claims  about  land.  They 
were  also  to  declare  such  persons  as  were  suspected  of 
crimes  with  which  the  inferior  courts  could  not  deal.  If 
a  suspected  man  fled,  he  was  outlawed.  If  he  refused  to 
plead,  he  was  subjected  to  close  imprisonment,  with  low 
diet.  This  developed  into  the  barbarous  treatment  which 
received  legislative  sanction  in  the  time  of  Edward  I., 
known  as  Peine  forte  et  diire,  in  order  to  overcome  wilful 
obstinacy.  Cases  occurred  of  known  felons  submitting 
to  the  excruciating  torture  of  being  pressed  to  death  by 
heavy  weights,  in  order  to  prevent  a  confiscation  of  their 
goods.  This  horrible  practice  continued  until  1772,  when 
it  was  virtually  abolished  by  Statute.  A  grim  verbal 
memento  existed  until  1890,  in  what  was  known  as  the 
Press   Yard,    in    Newgate.     When   the   accused   pleaded^ 


A.D.  1 1 54- 1 1 89.]     WA  GER  OF  BA  TTLE.  1 87 

and  stood  his  trial,  he  might  elect  between  Wager  of 
Battle  and  the  judgment  of  his  peers.  In  the  former 
case,  defeat  was  held  equivalent  to  a  verdict  of  guilty  ; 
the  duel  being  considered  in  the  light  of  an  appeal  to 
the  Deity.  But  victory  did  not  ensure  an  acquittal ;  for 
the  judges  might  imprison  him,  if  there  were  grounds 
for  suspicion.  Where  the  evidence  was  not  strong 
enough  to  convict,  there  might  be  an  appeal  to  what 
was  called  the  Judgment  of  God,  or  the  Ordeal  by  Fire 
or  by  Water,  as  in  Saxon  times.  This,  however,  was 
abolished  in  12 19.  Forty  years  later,  another  ancient 
custom  was  ended,  by  which,  in  the  event  of  a  dead  body 
.being  found,  the  inhabitants  of  the  district  were  required 
to  produce  the  murderer,  or  to  pay  a  fine  to  the  Crown. 
Such  a  law  must  have  stimulated  the  local  police  senti- 
ment at  the  expense  of  morality  ;  for  it  was  certain  to  go 
ill  with  an  unpopular  or  useless  man  when  the  Township 
might  save  money  by  getting  him  hung.  The  trial  by 
single  combat,  or  Wager  of  Battle,  survived  for  many 
years.  Though  it  gradually  fell  into  disuse,  it  was  not 
formally  abolished  until  1819,  when  an  accused  murderer 
escaped  a  second  trial  by  afifirming  his  right  to  single 
combat  with  his  accuser.  This  led  to  the  passing  of  a 
Statute  whereby  the  ancient  custom  was  abrogated. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THE   CHURCH    OR   THE   STATE. 
A.D.   1154-1170. 

The  prolonged  and  fierce  struggle  between  the  State 
and  the  Church,  as  represented  by  Henry  H.  and 
Archbishop  Becket,  was  only  a  personal  form  of  the 
old  contest  between  the  temporal  and  spiritual  authori- 
ties. It  was  the  logical  but  disastrous  issue  of  the 
action  of  William  I.  In  treating  upon  it,  various  writers 
have  shown  keen  partisanship.  The  dispute  is  not  to  be 
regarded  in  the  light  of  modern  opinions  or  prejudices. 
Henry    and    Becket    were   two    remarkable    men    in    a 


i88  CHURCH  OR  STATE.  [chap.  xi. 

remarkable  age.  They  engaged  in  a  hot  controversy 
on  matters  which  would  not  now  provoke  discussion, 
but  on  which  contrary  sides  were  then  taken  by  the 
wisest  and  the  best  of  men.  It  is  essential,  in  judging 
them,  to  endeavour  to  realize  their  position,  so  as  to 
see  things  as  they  saw  them,  and  to  estimate  the  in- 
fluences that  operated  so  powerfully.  The  Archbishop 
is  the  representative  of  sacerdotal  supremacy,  and  the 
monarch  of  kingly  authority,  and  also  unconsciously 
and  unintentionally,  of  national  liberties.  There  had 
been  preliminary  skirmishes  in  former  reigns,  by  such 
champions  of  the  respective  systems  as  William  I., 
Rufus,  and  Henry  I.  on  the  one  side,  and  Lanfranc. 
and  Anselm  on  the  other ;  but  the  battle  was  now  to 
be  fought  to  the  bitter  end.  England  was  about  to 
take  her  share  in  that  memorable  contest  with  the 
Romish  hierarchy  which  had  long  agitated  Europe,  had 
shaken  the  German  and  Italian  thrones,  and  was  not 
finally  terminated  for  nearly  four  centuries.  The  claim 
advanced  by  successive  Pontiffs,  following  the  initiative 
of  Hildebrand,  was  that  of  a  universal  and  unlimited 
sovereignty,  which,  under  the  guise  of  a  spiritual  supre- 
macy, insidiously  embraced  and  controlled  all  mundane 
affairs.  According  to  the  Canonists,  the  Pope  was  as 
far  above  all  kings  as  the  sun  is  greater  than  the  moon. 
The  immediate  and  sole  rule  of  the  world  belonged  to 
him  by  Divine  right.  It  was  held  as  a  point  essential 
to  salvation  that  every  human  being  was  thus  subject 
to  him.  He  alone  could  determine  as  to  truth  and  error. 
It  was  his  to  confirm  or  to  set  aside  laws.  He  might 
create  and  depose  monarchs.  This  doctrine  could,  it  was 
said,  be  denied  only  by  madmen,  or  at  the  express  in- 
stigation of  the  devil.  To  doubt  it  was  more  pernicious 
than  to  err  concerning  the  Sacraments,  or  to  commit  any 
of  the  Seven  Deadly  Sins.  All  nations  and  kingdoms 
were  regarded  as  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Vicar  of 
Christ  on  earth.  To  him  was  said  to  have  been  delivered 
all  power  and  dominion. 

Such  were  the  inflated  pretensions  set  forth  without 
disguise  or  hesitation  by  Roman  apologists  and  exponents 
of  that  time.  Apart  from  questions  of  theology,  such 
arrogant    claims    struck    at    the    root    of    civil    society. 


A.D.  1154-1170.]         PAPAL  CLAIMS.  189 

Supreme  headship  was  asserted,  not  only  in  things 
spiritual  but  in  things  temporal ;  with  absolute  infalli- 
bility for  the  Pope's  decrees.  He  was  constituted  at 
once  legislator,  judge,  and  executive.  From  his  decisions 
there  was  no  appeal.  .They  were  enforced  with  tremen- 
dous and  awful  penalties,  affecting  alike  body  and  soul, 
in  this  world  and  in  that  to  come.  It  is  useless  to 
conjecture  what  might  have  been  the  issue  of  the  conflict 
eventually  waged  by  Innocent  HI.  (b.  1161,  r.  119S-1216) 
if  he  had  long  survived.  From  all  that  is  known  of  his 
character  and  career,  he  would  have  plunged  into  the  fray 
as  hotly  as  did  Hildebrand,  a  hundred  years  before,  and 
would  not  have  hesitated  to  employ  all  the  bolts  in  the 
Papal  quiver,  so  as  to  effect  the  complete  subjugation  and 
abasement  of  England,  in  common  with  the  whole  of 
Christendom.  The  famous  dispute  about  the  investitures 
with  prelatical  insignia  was  only  the  occasion  of  an  im- 
minent strife.  It  was  a  revival  of  the  old  dispute, 
whether  it  was  lawful  for  the  sovereign  to  bestow  upon 
bishops  the  crosier  and  the  episcopal  ring,  as  signs  of 
the  allegiance  due  from  them  for  the  temporalities  of 
their  benefices.  This  involved  a  negative  on  every 
appointment.  Popes  claimed  it  as  their  exclusive  pos- 
session.    Kings  refused  to  concede  the  claim. 

During  the  fifty  years  since  the  death  of  Anselm, 
wht)se  struggle  on  a  similar  point  with  Henry  I.  ended 
in  a  compromise,  the  Romish  court  had  increased  in 
power,  and  its  assumptions  had  become  greater.  Every 
opportunity  was  seized  to  extend  and  consolidate  the 
influence  of  Rome.  Appeals  were  encouraged  on  points 
of  doctrine  and  discipline,  and  on  disputes  in  civil 
matters.  There  was  but  a  shadowy  line  between  legal 
and  moral  questions.  The  internal  administration  of 
kingdoms  was  constantly  interfered  with.  An  esprit  de 
corps  was  fostered  among  the  clergy  as  a  separate  order. 
Monasteries  and  abbeys,  of  which  one  hundred  and  fifteen 
were  built  in  Stephen's  reign,  and  nearly  as  many  during 
that  of  Henry  II.,  were  exempted  from  episcopal  juris- 
diction, so  as  to  attach  their  inmates  to  Rome.  A 
conflict  was  inevitable  between  the  temporal  and  the 
spiritual  powers.  It  was  only  a  question  of  time  and 
circumstances,   combatants  and  weapons,   and  a  chosen 


igo  CHURCH  OR  STATE.  [chap.  XL 

battle-ground.  A  vivid  picture  of  the  prevailing  ecclesi- 
asticism  is  presented  by  Carlyle,  in  his  '  Past  and 
Present,'  in  the  case  of  Abbot  Samson,  of  St.  Edmunds- 
bury.  Few  men  have  been  written  about  more  copiously 
than  Becket,  or  in  such  varied  terms.  Early  monks 
and  modern  High  Churchmen ;  enthusiastic  admirers 
and  severe  critics ;  ecclesiastics  who  can  discern  in 
him  nothing  but  good,  and  laymen  who  are  convinced 
that  his  influence  was  wholly  evil,  have  indulged  in 
the  extremes  of  panegyric  and  of  condemnation.  Of 
original  materials  there  exists  a  formidable  array  of 
chronicles,  biographies,  eulogies.  State-documents,  and 
private  letters.  No  fewer  than  nine  large  octavo  volumes 
in  the  series  of  '  Chronicles  and  Memorials  of  Great- 
Britain  '  are  devoted  to  the  Becket  literature  of  his  own 
times.  He  was  the  most  admired  and  the  best  abused 
man  of  that  age.  His  contemporaries  were  divided  into 
two  hostile  camps  regarding  him.  Every  succeeding 
generation  has  been  divided  in  like  manncF.  The  ex- 
planation of  this  contrariety — the  substantial  accuracy 
of  the  main  facts  as  recorded  being  indisputable — is 
that  Becket  has  always  been  surrounded  by  a  nebulous 
atmosphere  of  theological  and  ecclesiastical  controversy, 
so  that  it  is  hopeless  to  mention  him  without  provoking 
a  war  of  words.  Even  the  titles  accorded  or  withheld 
are  badges  of  the  faction  fight.  It  is  questionable 
whether  during  his  life  he  was  usually  called  Thomas 
Becket ;  still  less,  Thomas  a  Becket.  Surnames  were 
then  uncommon,  in  the  sense  of  a  son  bearing  his 
father's  name.  He  is  spoken  of  as  Thomas  of  London, 
Thomas  the  Archdeacon,  Thomas  the  Chancellor,  and, 
at  length,  as  Thomas  the  Martyr ;  until  beatified  as  Saint 
Thomas  of  Canterbury. 

Tradition  and  romance  have  made  free  with  his  early 
history.  The  simple  facts  are  that  he  was  born  about 
the  year  1 1 1 9  ;  that  his  father  was  a  prosperous  Norman 
citizen  and  merchant  of  London ;  that  the  son  attracted 
the  notice  and  won  the  regard  of  Archbishop  Theobald, 
who,  as  was  his  custom  with  promising  youths,  took  him 
into  his  own  household,  ordained  him  deacon,  sent  hira 
abroad  to  study  and  on  missions,  and  at  length,  intro- 
duced him  to  the  King  as  likely  to  be  of  service.     Becket's 


A.D.  1154-1170.]  BECKET.  191 

foot  having  once  found  the  ladder  of  promotion,  his  own 
courage  and  abilities  speedily  enabled  him  to  rise,  until 
his  power,  wealth,  and  influence  became  almost  illimit- 
able. A  tall,  handsome  man,  of  majestic  presence ; 
agreeable  and  witty ;  an  accomplished  courtier ;  learned, 
above  the  average  in  that  day;  a  good  chess-player; 
possessed  of  great  physical  strength,  and  fond  of  hunting 
and  hawking,  he  seemed  born  for  the  atmosphere  of  a 
Court.  He  was  apt  in  business,  quick  of  sight  and  of 
hearing,  a  keen  disputant,  an  omnivorous  worker,  and 
he  relieved  the  King  of  much  that  w^as  irksome.  He  is 
described  by  one  of  his  intimate  friends  and  admirers  as 
being  "  slight  and  pale,  with  dark  hair,  long  nose, 
straight-featured  face,  blithe  of  countenance,  keen  of 
thought,  winning  and  lovable  in  conversation,  frank 
of  speech  ;  but  slightly  stuttering  in  his  talk." 

Numerous  honourable  and  lucrative  appointments 
were  bestowed  upon  him,  including  the  high  post  of 
Chancellor ;  not  then  a  strictly  judicial  office.  Its 
occupant  had  charge  of  the  royal  seal,  the  drafting  of 
writs  and  charters,  the  preservation  of  legal  records, 
and  the  custody  of  vacant  fiefs  and  benefices.  The  post 
was  one  of  much  influence  and  emolument,  as  having 
corftrol  of  the  secretarial  work  of  the  royal  household 
and  of  the  general  administration  of  affairs.  Of  a 
generous  disposition,  Becket  maintained  a  large  retinue 
and  much  state.  His  love  and  his  hatred  were  intense, 
and  he  could  arouse  these  passions  strongly  in  others. 
His  personal  followers  were  attached  to  him  by  ties  that 
neither  adversity  nor  death  could  sever.  Only  one  other 
instance  occurs  in  English  history  of  a  subject  attaining 
to  such  a  pinnacle  of  greatness.  In  the  parallel  case  of 
Wolsey,  the  recipient  of  the  monarch's  favour  was  also 
an  ecclesiastic,  and  a  man  of  transcendent  abilities.  Eye- 
witnesses and  encomiasts  have  left  accounts  of  the  almost 
imperial  splendour  in  which  Becket  lived.  The  King 
had  full  confidence  in  his  favourite,  and  delighted  to 
honour  him,  and  he  served  Henry  ably  and  faithfully. 
There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  his  conduct  was  a 
master-stroke  of  crafty  policy,  designed  to  accomplish 
an  ulterior  end,  alike  inimical  to  the  regal  power  and 
to  the  national  liberties.     It  is  only  just  to  conclude  that 


192  CHURCH  OR  STATE.  [chap.  xi. 

a  change  of  circumstances,  opening  up  another  career 
and  the  highest  ecclesiastical  dignity,  suggested  the 
policy  with  which  Becket's  name  is  for  ever  associated  ; 
honourably,  in  the  esteem  of  admirers,  but  infamously 
in  that  of  detractors. 

Archbishop  Theobald,  a  saintly  and  revered  prelate, 
worthy  to  occupy  the  seat  consecrated  by  Anselm,  died 
in  1161.  The  See  of  Canterbury  was  kept  vacant  for 
more  than  twelve  months ;  its  enormous  revenues 
accruing,  as  usual,  to  the  King.  Becket  was  chosen  by 
Henry  for  the  post ;  apparently,  against  his  will,  and 
notwithstanding  half-serious  and  half-playful  protests. 
It  is  this  startling  change  in  the  position  of  one  who  had 
been  only  a  deacon,  but  filling  some  of  the  chief  offices  in 
the  State,  which  makes  this  extraordinary  man  appear  as 
a  designing  hypocrite  in  the  eyes  of  some,  while  others 
extol  him  as  saint  and  martyr.  There  is  no  proof  that 
he  was  insincere,  or  that  he  was  more  fanatical  than  the 
average  ecclesiastics  of  the  time.  He  at  once  resigned  the 
Chancellorship,  to  the  King's  surprise  and  vexation ;  on 
the  ground  that  it  was  incompatible  with  the  arch- 
bishopric. Before  long,  he  claimed  a  restoration  of 
possessions  formerly  belonging  to  the  See,  which  he 
•declared  had  been  wrongfully  alienated.  This  appears 
to  have  been  an  ofificial  and  not  a  personal  demand  ;  but 
it  alarmed  and  angered  the  barons  who  had  acquired  the 
lands.  Another  ground  of  dispute  was  the  right  claimed 
by  most  of  them  to  appoint  priests  to  vacant  livings  on 
their  estates ;  which  right  was  denied  by  Becket.  A 
further  dispute  arose  out  of  his  resistance  to  an  attempt 
made  by  the  royal  officers  to  divert  into  the  Exchequer  a 
sum  of  two  shillings  per  hide  of  land,  which  the  sheriffs 
had  been  accustomed  to  levy  for  the  Danegeld,  or  to 
collect  for  the  expenses  of  their  office.  Becket  took  his 
stand  upon  the  usages  of  the  fealm.  With  characteristic 
intrepidity  he  denounced  the  proposal,  in  a  Council  held 
at  Woodstock,  in  June  1163;  declaring  that  not  a  penny 
should  come  from  his  lands.  He  carried  his  point,  and 
is  the  first  Englishman  on  record  who  defeated  an  illegal 
tax.  At  the  same  time,  there  is  no  warrant  for  Thierry's 
fanciful  hypothesis,  that  he  impersonated  the  cause  of  the 
Saxon  against  the  Norman.     There  is  not  the  remotest 


A.D.  1 1 54- 1 17°.]  POINTS  OF  DISPUTE.  193 

allusion  to  it,  directly  or  by  implication,  in  any  contem- 
porary writer.  So  far  from  this  being  the  case,  the  old 
distinction  and  rivalry  had  long  before  vanished. 

Both  the  King  and  the  Archbishop  failed  to  compre- 
hend each  other  in  the  early  stages  of  the  dispute,  or  to 
appreciate  its  real  nature  and  its  certain  issues.  Henry 
expected  a  useful  instrument  in  the  new  prelate ;  but 
was  disappointed.  Becket  thought  to  find  the  King  as 
easy  to  manage  in  ecclesiastical  affairs  as  in  other  things  ; 
but  he,  too,  was  disappointed.  It  proved  a  happy  cir- 
cumstance for  the  future  of  England  ;  but  it  would  be 
worse  than  folly  to  assume  that  Henry  H.  engaged  in  the 
struggle  with  any  intelligent  understanding  of  the 
ultimate  question  as  affecting  national  liberties,  or  with 
any  other  object  than  the  maintenance  of  his  own  sup- 
posed prerogative.  Its  effect  upon  himself  was  to  make 
him  reckless  of  moral  and  religious  obligations,  and  to 
increase  his  natural  domination,  fierceness,  and  irrita- 
bility. Circumstances  developed  in  his  case,  as  in  that 
of  Henry  VIII.,  some  of  the  worst  features  of  his  charac- 
ter ;  which  were  always  aggravated  under  opposition. 
Open  hostilities  between  the  two  representatives  of  the 
rival  forces  broke  out  in  1164.  The  proximate  cause  was 
a  refusal  on  the  part  of  Becket  to  surrender  to  the  civil 
courts  a  cleric  charged  with  murder.  This  raised  an  old 
question  as  to  jurisdiction  ;  out  of  which  great  abuses  had 
sprung.  In  the  first  eight  years  of  the  reign,  a  hundred 
such  murders — probably  the  conjectural  expression  of  a 
general  feeling  —  are  said  to  have  been  committed ; 
besides  numberless  robberies  and  other  oftences.  The 
culprits  escaped  all  punishment,  other  than  light  sen- 
tences of  fine,  or  imprisonment,  or  penance,  as  imposed 
by  the  spiritual  courts.  Becket  strove  to  maintain  this 
condition  of  things.  If  the  claims  advanced  for  the 
clerical  order  had  been  conceded,  there  is  no  reason  to 
suppose  that  he  would  have  rebuked  the  King's  scan- 
dalous life.  No  instance  is  recorded  of  Henry's  personal 
and  notorious  vices,  of  his  oppressive  edicts,  or  of  his 
violence,  extortion,  and  corrupt  government  being  re- 
proved by  the  Archbishop. 

A  Great  Council  was  convened  at  Clarendon,  near 
Winchester,  in  January,  11 64.  Three  days  were  spent 
15 


194  CHURCH  OR  STATE.  [chap.  xi. 

in  angry  debate.  The  general  scheme  propounded  was 
to  reduce  all  men  to  an  equality  before  the  law.  The 
real  and  vital  question  at  issue  was  who  should  rule 
England ;  the  monarch  or  the  ecclesiastic ;  the  law  of 
the  land  or  an  alien  system.  The  object  of  the  Hilde- 
brandists  was  absolute  dominion  over  the  laity.  The 
aim  of  the  King  was  absolute  supremacy  over  both  clergy 
and  laity.  He  wished  to  restore  ancient  customs  that 
had  been  engulphed  by  the  advancing  flood  of  Papal 
assumptions.  If  the  sceptre  had  obtained  a  complete 
victory,  England  would  have  become  a  prey  to  regal 
autocracy.  If  the  crosier  had  been  decisively  successful, 
a  debasing  tyranny  would  have  been  established  over  the 
minds  of  men.  The  debate  ended  in  the  promulgation  of 
what  are  known  as  the  Constitutions  of  Clarendon,  which 
professed  to  be  only  a  formal  statement  of  recognised 
national  traditions.  They  were  to  England  what  the 
Pragmatic  Sanction  of  1268  was  to  France.  While  some 
of  them  only  state,  in  legal  form,  customs  that  had  been 
operative  for  nearly  a  century,  others  seem  to  have 
involved  fresh  developments  and  new  applications,  as 
parts  of  the  wider  system  of  jurisprudence  then  coming 
into  play.  Viewed  impartially,  they  are  not  a  mere 
engine  of  regal  tyranny,  or  the  display  of  secular  hatred 
against  an  ecclesiastic.  Their  intent  and  purport  evi- 
dently were  to  clear  the  debatable  ground  between  two 
conflicting  jurisdictions,  and  they  formed  the  basis  of 
much  subsequent  legislation.  To  the  ecclesiastical  mind, 
as  was  not  surprising,  they  appeared  as  a  device,  not  only 
to  control  the  Church,  but  to  tyrannize  over  it. 

The  Articles  were  sealed  by  the  barons,  and  by  all  the 
prelates  except  Becket.  He  impetuously  declared  at 
first, — "  Never  shall  seal  of  mine  be  put  to  such  Articles." 
Afterwards,  he  temporized,  and  accepted  them  ;  with 
reservations.  On  further  reflection  he  retracted  his  con- 
sent. He  was  confirmed  in  his  resistance  when  Pope 
Alexander  III.  (r.  1159-1181)  rejected  the  Constitutions 
of  Clarendon,  and  absolved  him  from  an  oath  to  observe 
the  ancient  customs ;  taken  under  pressure  from  some  of 
his  fellow-prelates,  who  acted  from  servile  fear  and  con- 
trary to  their  own  judgment.  He  now  prepared  for  a 
fierce  conflict.     At  another  Council,  held  at  Northampton 


A.D.  II54-II70.]    AN  OPEN  RUPTURE.  195 

in  October,  1164,  he  was  suddenly  ordered  to  account  for 
certain  alleged  unsettled  matters  of  the  late  Chancellor- 
ship. Henry  grew  more  peremptory,  and  the  Archbishop 
more  obstinate  and  provoking.  The  old  disputes  were 
revived,  and  Becket,  with  such  of  the  bishops  as  opposed 
him,  appealed  to  Rome ;  as  did  Henry,  subsequently, 
with  marvellous  inconsistency.  Becket  secretly  crossed 
the  Channel,  and  withdrew  to  a  monastery  in  St.  Omer  ; 
declaring  that  his  life  was  in  danger.  Thence  he  pro- 
ceeded to  Sens,  where  the  Pope  was  residing ;  a  rival, 
known  as  Pascal  HI.,  having  been  set  up  in  Rome  by  the 
Emperor  Frederick  Barbarossa  of  Germany  (b.  1121,  r. 
1 1 52-1 190).  A  paper  war  ensued,  with  the  customary 
personal  recriminations.  Messages  and  delegates  passed 
to  and  fro,  in  a  kind  of  triangular  duel  between  Henry, 
the  Pope,  and  Becket. 

As  no  settlement  appeared  likely,  the  payment  of 
Peter's  Pence  from  England  was  prohibited ;  all  who 
presumed  to  appeal  to  the  Pope  on  any  matter  were 
ordered  to  be  imprisoned ;  those  who  brought  letters 
from  him  were  to  be  hanged  or  sent  adrift  in  an  open 
boat  on  the  sea ;  and  all  mention  of  the  Archbishop  in 
public  prayers  was  forbidden.  His  relatives  and  depen- 
dents were  driven  into  exile  in  mid-winter.  His  goods 
and  revenues,  and  those  of  the  clergy  who  adhered  to 
him,  were  seized,  and  during  the  six  years  of  exile  the 
King  retained  them.  Henry  would  not  yield  one  iota  of 
his  claim,  although  he  tried  the  diplomatic  policy  to 
which  he  was  so  addicted.  By  first  forbidding  the 
bishops  to  appeal  to  the  Pope  against  Becket ;  then 
allowing  them  to  do  so  ;  next,  making  such  an  appeal 
himself;  and  finally,  when  the  result  seemed  likely  to  be 
adverse,  threatening  vindictive  and  cruel  penalties  on  all 
who  dared  to  introduce  or  act  upon  Papal  Bulls,  he 
virtually  gave  up  his  own  cause.  The  Primate  was  as 
determined,  on  his  side.  The  Pope  temporized  ;  alter- 
nately soothing,  flattering,  threatening,  and  restraining 
both  of  the  litigants.  He  sent  to  tliem  on  one  occasion 
two  separate  envoys,  with  contrary  instructions,  so  as  to 
gain  time.  Ralph  de  I3iceto,  Dean  of  St.  Paul's,  writing 
in  the  midst  of  these  events,  puns  in  a  prevalent  f:\shion 
on  the  two  Papal  envoys,  friends  of  the  two  disputants, 


196  CHURCH  OR  STATE.  [chap.  xi. 

^\'ho  neutralized  one  another  in  the  commission  of  1169  : 
• — "  Gratian  found  no  grace  with  the  King ;  nor  was 
Vivian  vivid  in  the  memory  of  the  Archbishop." 

During  the  chief  part  of  the  six  years'  conflict,  Henry 
was  in  his  Continental  dominions,  where  the  troubled 
state  of  affairs  required  personal  attention.  The  strife 
with  the  Church  aggravated  his  temporal  difificulties. 
Enemies  and  rivals  eagerly  awaited  his  threatened  ex- 
communication, as  the  pretext  for  piously  attacking  his 
territories.  The  air  was  full  of  intrigue,  and  there  were 
ceaseless  petty  wars.  No  fewer  than  thirteen  revolts 
occurred  in  his  French  possessions  between  11 66  and 
1168.  He  had  his  eldest  son,  a  boy  of  fifteen — who  sub- 
sequently died,  in  1 183,  while  in  open  rebellion — associ- 
ated with  himself  in  the  regal  authority,  for  the  purpose 
of  consolidating  the  family  influence.  The  result  was 
disastrous.  The  coronation  of  the  youth  was  performed 
in  June,  11 70,  by  Roger,  Archbishop  of  York,  to  spite 
Becket  ;  who  protested  and  threatened  in  vain  against 
this  infraction  of  what  was  claimed  as  his  prerogative. 
In  the  following  month,  a  formal  reconciliation  took 
place,  but  it  proved  hollow.  Becket  agreed  to  "  love, 
honour,  and  serve  the  King,  in  as  far  as  an  Archbishop 
could  render  in  the  Lord  service  to  a  Sovereign."  Henry 
undertook  to  restore  all  the  lands,  livings,  and  privileges 
of  the  See  of  Canterbury,  and  to  make  restitution  for  all 
that  Becket's  friends  and  relatives  had  lost.  Each  of  the 
contestants  seems  to  have  made  mental  reservations. 
Nothing  was  gained  by  Henry  in  this  compromise.  In- 
deed, the  vital  point  at  issue  was  practically  conceded. 
But  he  was  weary  of  the  strife,  and  the  condition  of 
affairs  on  the  Continent  compelled  its  termination.  He 
evaded,  however,  giving  the  kiss  of  peace ;  then  regarded, 
in  feudal  usuage,  as  a  solemn  pledge  of  amity ;  and 
making  Becket's  friends  apprehensive  for  his  safety. 

His  own  courage  did  not  quail.  Unyielding  in  soul, 
he  would  never  stoop  to  conciliate  his  adversaries.  He 
sent  over  letters  suspending  Hugh  Pudsey,  Bishop  of 
Durham,  and  also  the  Archbishop  of  York,  whom  he 
compared  to  Holofernes,  and  excommunicating  Gilbert 
Foliot,  Bishop  of  London,  Josceline  de  Baliol,  Bishop  of 
Salisbury,    and   others,  who,  in  his  judgment,  had   been 


A.D.  1 1 54-1 170.]  MURDER  OF  BECKET.  197 

recreant  to  Rome.  He  reached  Canterbury  after  his  long 
exile  early  in  December,  11 70;  intending  thereto  spend 
the  Christmas  festival.  In  a  sermon  preached  in  the 
cathedral,  he  declared  that  he  would  avenge  some  of  the 
wrongs  his  church  had  suffered,  and  he  pronounced 
maledictions  against  certain  persons.  Such  acts  and 
utterances,  with  private  conversations  recorded  by  friends, 
show  his  determination  to  stand  unflinchingly  by  the  old 
pretensions,  and  to  uphold  by  extreme  measures  what  he 
deemed  to  be  his  spiritual  authority.  Reports  of  all  this, 
w^ith  inevitable  colouring,  and  exaggerations,  reached  the 
King  in  Normandy,  whither  the  excommunicated  bishops 
had  gone  to  make  complaint.  Henry  was  furious  ;  and 
in  one  of  his  mad  storms  of  passion,  to  which  he  often 
abandoned  himself,  is  said  to  have  asked  "  whether  there 
was  among  all  the  lazy  servants  who  ate  his  bread  no  one 
ready  to  deliver  him  from  this  turl^ulent  and  base-born 
priest  ? "  Four  knights  interpreted  his  question  to 
mean  that  he  would  like  to  be  rid  of  his  adversary  by 
violence.  They  set  forth  by  different  routes  ;  arranging 
to  meet  in  Canterbury.  Arrived  there  on  December  29th, 
they  entered  the  palace,  which,  as  was  customary,  was 
accessible  to  all,  and  found  Becket  had  just  finished 
dinner.  A  colloquy  ensued,  that  speedily  became  a 
wrangle  ;  for  he  was  hot-tempered,  and,  after  the  fashion 
of  his  day,  could  be  abusive  and  scurrilous.  The  scene  is 
described  in  realistic  terms  by  those  who  were  present. 
Dean  Stanley,  in  his  '  Memorials  of  Canterbury,'  has 
collected  and  grouped  in  his  own  inimitable  style  all 
the  available  information.  When  ordered  by  four 
coarse  and  brutal  knights,  whom  modern  opinion 
would  justly  stamp  as  ruffians,  to  "  absolve  the  pre- 
lates ;  fly ;  or  die,"  Becket  would  not  fly,  and  he 
could  not  canonically  withdraw  the  excommunication. 
Even  if  he  had  the  power,  its  exercise  would  have  been 
an  act  of  moral  cowardice  under  the  circumstances. 
Whether  his  sentence  was  right  or  wrong,  wise  or  foolish, 
he  was  not  warranted  in  cancelling  it  at  the  behest  of 
these  blatant  fighting  men,  armed  with  no  legal  authority. 
They  were  simply  private  foes  who  seized  on  the  occasion 
to  gratify  their  revenge  with  impunity.  His  refusal,  even 
granting  its  inexpediency,  was  not  only  a  maintenance  of 


198  CHURCH  OR  STATE.  [chap.  xi. 

the  rights  of  his  See,  and  of  the  privileges  of  the  Church, 
but  of  the  cause  of  law  and  order  as  opposed  to  violence. 

Hearing  the  vesper  bell,  he  went  through  the  cloisters 
into  the  cathedral,  in  a  slow  and  stately  manner  ;  his 
cross  borne  before  him.  He  even  waited  while  it 
was  sent  for.  The  attendant  clergy  proposed  to  shut 
the  grating  leading  to  the  choir ;  but  he  forbade 
them.  He  refused  also  to  take  refuge  in  any  of  the 
numerous  hiding-places  ;  although  the  knights  and  their 
armed  followers  were  close  at  hand.  The  assailants  tried 
to  drag  him  out  of  the  cathedral ;  feeling  scrupulous 
about  killing  him  there.  In  the  gloom  of  that  December 
evening,  amidst  the  prevailing  excitement  and  alarm, 
none  knew  precisely  what  was  being  done  in  the  North 
transept.  It  was  the  work  of  a  few  minutes.  There  was 
a  short,  hot  controversy ;  a  foul  taunt  from  the  Primate ; 
a  blow  in  response;  then  a  general  attack,  and  Becket 
was  no  more.  The  murderers  retired  without  molesta- 
tion ;  but  many  people  came  and  dipped  their  garments 
in  the  blood ;  to  be  treasured  as  sacred  relics.  As  the 
news  of  the  murder  spread,  men's  minds  were  filled  with 
horror.  An  immediate  revulsion  took  place  in  public 
feeling.  Henry  was  overwhelmed  with  remorse  and 
dread  ;  now  that  the  crisis  had  come.  For  three  days  he 
neither  ate  nor  spoke.  He  anticipated  nothing  less  than 
an  immediate  Interdict.  It  did  not,  however,  suit  the 
Papal  authorities  to  press  matters  to  the  uttermost. 
Legates  were  appointed  to  inquire  into  the  case.  Henry 
swore  on  the  Gospels  that  he  had  not  compassed  or 
desired  the  assassination.  He  agreed  to  send  an  armed 
force  to  the  Crusades,  and  to  found  three  monasteries. 
He  promised  that  the  possessions  of  the  See  of  Canter- 
bury should  be  restored  ;  that  appeals  to  the  Pope  should 
be  allowed,  on  taking  reasonable  security  from  suspected 
persons  ;  and  that  customs  hostile  to  the  privileges  of  the 
clergy  should  be  abolished,  if  these  had  been  introduced 
during  his  reign. 

By  a  Papal  Bull,  tlie  cathedral  at  Canterbury  was 
closed  for  three  years  ;  to  undergo  a  ceremonial  purgation. 
The  murdered  Archbishop  was  subsequently  canonized  ; 
not  without  much  huckstering  as  to  what  proportion  of 
the  receipts  at  his  shrinf  should  be  allocated  to  Rome'. 


A.D.  1 1 54- 1 1 70.]  CANTERBURY  PILGRIMS.  199 

Pope  Honorius  III.  (r.  12 16-1227)  stipulated  for  one-half 
the  gross  proceeds,  but  had  at  length  to  be  content  with 
a  moiety  of  the  net  amount,  because  the  monks  declared 
they  could  not  carry  on  the  business  upon  such  stringent 
terms.  Not  until  this  piece  of  bargaining  was  ended,  did 
the  Pope  grant  his  consent  to  the  translation  of  the  body. 
The  act  of  beatification  was  then  performed  with  much 
ceremony.  No  surprise  need  be  felt  about  this  transac- 
tion. Many  a  saint  is  a  glorified  failure  ;  though,  for  the 
purposes  of  Rome,  Becket  was  not  a  failure.  Whether 
saint  or  not,  he  was  a  hero  in  popular  esteem.  A  stream 
of  pilgrims  set  in  to  his  shrine,  which,  within  fifty  years, 
received  far  more  presents  than  all  the  other  shrines  in 
the  cathedral  or  in  the  land.  "  Kings,  for  such  a  tomb," 
as  Milton  says,  "would  wish  to  die."  It  was  alleged  that 
miracles  were  wrought  there.  The  Chronicles  contain 
numerous  instances  of  pretended  cures  of  heterogeneous 
ailments.  What  was  declared  to  be  the  blood  of  the 
saint  and  martyr  was  mixed  with  water,  and  the  minu- 
test drop  was  said  to  be  of  miraculous  efficacy.  Pilgrims 
visiting  the  tomb  purchased  some  of  this  in  leaden  phials. 
Suspended  round  the  neck,  they  became  the  tokens  of 
Canterbury  pilgrims,  just  as  those  to  Compostella  were 
known  by  the  scallop-shell,  or  those  to  Jerusalem  by  the 
palm-branch.  Specimens  of  the  a7tipuUi^^  or  phials,  are 
preserved  in  the  British  Museum  ;  but  the  action  of  the 
atmosphere  is  such  that  they  oxidize  when  exposed, 

At  that  shrine,  in  1174,  Henry  II.  performed  an 
astounding  act  of  penance,  by  kneeling  in  front  of  it 
while  he  was  scourged  by  the  attendant  clergy.  The 
place  was  for  more  than  three  hundred  years  a  fashion- 
able resort.  Chaucer  describes  scenes  commonly  wit- 
nessed in  his  day.  Long  subsequently,  Erasmus  and  his 
friend,  Uean  Colet,  went  to  Canterbury  in  15 10,  to  see 
and  judge  for  themselves.  They  expressed  in  unmis- 
takable terms  their  scorn  for  the  grovelling  superstition 
of  the  ignorant  devotees ;  and  their  indignation  at  the 
mercenary  spirit  of  the  guardians  of  the  shrine.  This 
culminated  when  a  handkerchief  was  produced  which 
Becket  was  alleged  to  have  used  ;  with  other  "  rags  and 
clouts  "  said  to  have  belonged  to  him.  Erasmus  says  : — 
"  The  gold  and  silver  on  that  saint's  altar  seemed  to  make 


200  CHURCH  OR  STATE.  [chap.  XI. 

Croesus  a  beggar  in  comparison."  The  pomp  of  silk  vest- 
ments and  gold  candlesticks  was  overwhelming.  What 
professed  to  be  the  foot  of  Becket  was  exhibited,  for  a 
consideration,  "  in  a  rod  of  silver  longer  than  to  a  man's 
waist ; "  also  the  saint's  whole  face,  set  in  gold,  and 
adorned  with  jewels.  The  bones  of  the  body  were  kept 
by  themselves  ;  as  too  sacred  for  vulgar  inspection  ;  but 
a  chest  of  gold  above  them,  in  which  the  offerings  of 
the  pilgrims  were  placed,  was  Shown,  sparkling  with  rare 
and  costly  jewels,  the  gifts  of  kings  and  nobles.  The 
oblations  of  the  devout  and  grateful  continued  to  increase 
until  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  j  but  in  the 
ecclesiastical  spoliation  under  Henry  VIII.  the  treasures 
of  the  shrine  were  stripped,  Becket  was  unsainted,  and 
his  name  erased  from  the  Calendar  as  "  a  disloyal  and 
pestilent  agitator." 

In  one  sense,  the  controversy  between  prince  and 
prelate  remained  unsettled.  Henry,  like  a  true  Angevin, 
though  he  crouched  for  the  time,  from  mere  policy,  sur- 
rendered no  spoils.  He  suspended  all  efforts  to  diminish 
by  force  of  law  the  power  of  the  priesthood.  Technically, 
their  privileges  were  saved,  but  they  received  repeated 
blows  and  experienced  serious  diminution  as  years  rolled 
by,  until  the  growth  of  public  sentiment  put  an  end  to 
sacerdotal  pretensions.  Within  four  years,  the  main 
principle  for  which  Becket  struggled  and  died  was  aban- 
doned by  his  successor.  Eight  vacant  sees,  besides  Can- 
terbury, were  filled,  after  long  delays,  with  men  wholly 
subservient  to  the  royal  will.  Before  the  end  of  that 
reign,  the  English  episcopate  was  completely  brought 
under  the  control  of  the  Crown.  A  spirit  of  worldliness 
and  selfishness  prevailed.  Mitred  bishop  and  tonsured 
priest,  with  a  few  honourable  exceptions,  were  commonly 
charged  with  greed  and  corruption.  John  of  Salisbury, 
the  intimate  friend  of  Becket  and  of  his  predecessor, 
Archbishop  Theobald,  records  many  instances  of  prela- 
tical  extortion,  and  conveys  an  unfavourable  impression 
as  to  the  general  state  of  the  clerical  morals  in  that  day ; 
which  is  deepened  by  the  narrations  a  few  years  after- 
wards by  Walter  Mapes,  Giraldus  Cambrensis,  and  other 
writers.  Not  by  one  man,  nor  according  to  the  caprice 
of  regal  power,  were  the  momentous  issues  to  be  decided 


A.D.  1 1 54-1 1 70.]  THE  S TR UGGLE  FRUITLESS.         201 

With  Dunstan  is  connected  English  monasticism ;  with 
Anselm  the  claim  for  ecclesiastical  independence ;  with 
Innocent  III.  the  supremacy  of  the  Popes  above  all 
earthly  kings  ;  but  Becket's  exile  and  death  won  nothing 
for  his  order.  A  title  of  saintship,  a  splendid  shrine, 
and  crowds  of  worshippers,  showed  that  an  undaunted 
spirit  had  passed  away  ;  but  nothing  remained  to  embody 
his  claim.  He  contended  for  principles  and  for  a  policy 
which,  happily  for  the  future  liberties  of  this  country, 
did  not  prevail.  The  Constitutions  of  Clarendon,  so  reso- 
lutely opposed  by  him,  are  now,  by  universal  consent, 
incorporated  into  the  law  of  the  land.  Yet,  with  all  his 
defects  and  mistakes,  and  though  his  career  may  be 
admired  rather  than  approved,  he  will  always  occupy  a 
conspicuous  niche  in  the  Temple  of  Fame. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

REGAL   TYRANNY   AND    EXACTIONS. 
A.D.    II56-1215. 

Nicholas  Breakspeare,  known  as  Adrian  IV.  (b.  iioo, 
r.  1 1 54-11 59),  is  the  one  Pope  of  English  origin.  He 
was  a  novice  in  the  renowned  St.  Alban's  Benedictine 
Abbey  ;  and  was  the  confidential  friend  of  John  of  Salis- 
bury. Unlike  some  of  his  predecessors  and  successors, 
he  was  not  a  controversial  or  a  militant  Pontiff ;  but  he 
possessed  rare  constructive  gifts.  He  showed  much 
organizing  power  and  missionary  zeal,  and  in  some 
respects  was  a  reformer  of  abuses.  A  more  questionable 
renown  attaches  to  him  by  reason  of  a  Bull  issued  in  the 
second  year  of  this  reign  ;  authorizing  the  conquest  of 
Ireland  by  Henry  II.  The  customary  assumption  of 
authority  was  made  in  this  document  : — "  You  have 
advertised  us,  dear  son  in  Christ,  of  your  design  of  an 
expedition  into  Ireland,  to  subject  the  island  to  just  laws, 
and  to  root  out  vice.  You  promise  to  pay  us  out  of 
every  house  a  yearly  acknowledgment  of  one  penny,  and 
to  maintain  the  rights  of  the  Cliurch.      Wc  consent  and 


202  REGAL  TYRANNY.  [chap.  xil. 

allow  that  you  make  a  descent  on  that  island.  We  ex- 
hort you  to  do  whatever  you  shall  think  proper  to 
advance  the  honour  of  God  and  the  salvation  of  the 
people,  whom  we  charge  to  submit  to  your  jurisdiction, 
and  to  own  you  for  their  sovereign  lord  ;  provided  always 
that  the  rights  of  the  Church  are  inviolably  observed, 
and  the  Peter-Pence  duly  paid." 

As  with  the  Norman  invasion  of  England,  and  as  in  many 
similar  cases  of  the  violation  of  international  comity,  this 
was  a  mere  matter  of  barter.  Supposed  spiritual  sanc- 
tions were  given  to  acts  of  flagrant  wrong,  in  return  for 
material  offerings.  The  particular  assumptions  in  the 
Bull  were  alien  to  the  known  facts.  Seven  centuries 
before,  in  the  pontificate  of  Celestinus  I.  (a.d.  432), 
missionary  labours  had  been  carried  on  in  Ireland  ;  in- 
dissolubly  associated  with  the  names  of  St.  Patrick,  St. 
Columba,  and  St.  Gall.  Numerous  monasteries  and 
churches  were  built,  from  which  celebrated  teachers 
went  forth  to  evangelize  other  lands.  The  Irish  Church 
retained  its  independence  of  Rome ;  electing  its  own 
bishops  and,  managing  its  own  affairs,  down  to  the  time 
of  the  Norman  invasion  of  England.  Tithes  and  Peter's 
Pence  were  not  paid  ;  the  Roman  ritual  and  canon  law, 
and  Roman  rales  as  to  marriage  were  not  observed. 
This  was  the  head  and  front  of  the  offence.  Arch- 
bishop Lanfranc  sought  to  bring  about  in  Ireland  what 
he  termed  a  reformation  of  abuses  in  the  Church ;  which 
was  a  euphemism  for  an  attempted  ecclesiastical  subjuga- 
tion. Very  partial  success  followed  his  endeavours. 
One  Irish  bishop  came  over  in  1074  to  receive  consecra- 
tion ;  having  been  first  elected  in  accordance  with  ancient 
local  usages.  The  precedent  was  occasionally  followed 
in  after  years  ;  chiefly  by  bishops  of  Irish  towns  where 
Danish  settlements  existed.  Sometimes,  also,  an  inter- 
change of  greetings  and  of  mutual  offices  took  place. 
An  Irish  ecclesiastic  was  called  in  by  the  married  clergy 
of  England  to  plead  their  cause  at  the  Synod  of 
Calne,  in  977,  and  his  eloquence  could  only  be  met 
by  an  arbitrary  exercise  of  authority  on  the  part  of 
Dunstan  The  famous  school  of  Glastonbury  was  origin- 
ally an  Irish  settlement.  There  was  no  disposition 
on   the   part   of    the    Irish    clergy   to    acknowledge  the 


A.D.  1156-1215.]  THE  IRISH.  203 

supremacy  which  Rome  succeeded  in  establishing  over 
the  greater  part  of  Christendom.  Henry  the  Second's 
ambitious  project  to  conquer  Ireland  furnished  a  long- 
coveted  opportunity  to  Rome  to  effect  the  spiritual  sub- 
jugation of  the  country.  The  highest  ecclesiastical 
sanction  was  given  to  a  deed  of  violence  and  rapine.  Dr. 
Lingard  says, — "  The  Pontiff,  who  must  have  smiled  at 
the  hypocrisy  of  Henry,  praised  in  his  reply  the  piety  of 
his  dutiful  son."' 

The  people  of  Ireland  were  chiefly  descended  from  the 
Celtce ;  part  of  the  great  wave  of  population  that  had 
spread  over  Europe  in  remote  times.  It  cannot  be  deter- 
mined with  precision  whether  Ireland  was  settled  in  the 
first  instance  from  Britain.  Later  arrivals,  however, 
brought  more  of  a  Southern  element ;  accounting  for 
the  fervour  and  impetuousness  of  the  national  character. 
There  had  also  been  invasions  by  the  Danish  hordes, 
but  these  had  remained  in  distinct  settlements  on  the 
Eastern  coast.  The  country  was  divided  among  various 
tribes,  which  were  frequently  at  war.  Before  the  twelfth 
century,  most  of  the  tribal  distinctions  had  vanished  by 
absorption  into  petty  kingdoms.  Meath,  Leinster,  Ulster, 
Connaught,  and  Munster,  each  had  its  own  sovereign, 
independent  of  the  others  ;  though  there  was  a  dim  kind 
of  titular  supremacy  that  involved  no  territorial  power. 
At  the  time  of  the  English  invasion,  the  people  of 
Ireland  were  described  as  tall  and  commanding  in  form, 
nnd  of  a  ruddy  complexion.  Their  clothing  was  of  a 
simple  kind,  of  roughly-spun  wool.  Warlike  arts  and 
appliances  were  primitive ;  their  chief  weapons  being  a 
short  javelin,  or  lance,  a  sword,  or  a  hatchet.  They  are 
represented  as  passionately  fond  of  music,  and  their 
harpists  were  renowned.  Trade  and  agriculture  had 
made  some  progress.  Their  dwellings  were  originally  of 
wood  and  wattle-work  ;  but  stone  buildings,  cemented 
with  lime,  became  common  after  the  sixth  century.  The 
famous  round  towers,  which  belong  to  the  transitional 
period  between  Roman  and  what  is  termed  Gothic  art, 
and  which  served  as  belfries,  lighthouses,  and  places  of 
defence,  show  that  the  theory  of  construction  had  con- 
siderably advanced.  Their  symmetry  is  perfect ;  but  the 
courses  of  rough  stones   in  the  most   ancient  specimens 


204  REGAL  TYRANNY.  [chap.  xii. 

evidently  owed  little  to  the  skill  of  the  mason.  The 
smith's  art  was  not  unknown,  and  the  country  is  rich  in 
ancient  golden  ornaments.  Cities  were  few  and  small. 
Those  of  first  importance  were  Cashel  and  Tara.  With- 
out the  culture  of  municipal  institutions ;  without 
Roman  laws  of  property  and  inheritance ;  without 
means  of  intercommunication  by  roads ;  and  without 
the  traditions  of  one  united  empire,  the  nation  was  only 
a  cluster  of  clans,  divided  by  impenetrable  forests  and 
morasses.  Land  was  common  property,  and  a  fresh 
division  was  made  at  death.  The  power  of  the  chief  was 
principally  bounded  by  the  personal  sentiment  of  his 
followers.  There  was  no  upper  class,  and  scarcely  any 
settled  institutions  for  the  maintenance  of  law  and  order. 
Schemes  of  conquest  and  annexation  had  been  formed 
by  William  I.  and  by  his  son  Henry  I.;  but  domestic 
and  Continental  affairs  were  unpropitious.  When 
Henry  II.  submitted  the  project  and  the  Papal  authori- 
zation to  the  Great  Council,  its  members  discouraged  the 
enterprise.  As  his  presence  was  required  in  Normandy, 
the  Irish  expedition  was  postponed,  and  the  Bull,  with 
an  accompanying  emerald  ring  of  great  price,  sent  as 
a  token  of  investiture,  were  deposited  in  the  royal 
treasury  at  Winchester,  where  they  remained  fourteen 
years.  At  length,  in  1169,  a  specious  pretext  was 
furnished  for  intermeddling.  Richard  de  Clare,  nick- 
named Strongbow,  Earl  of  Pembroke,  assisted  Dermot, 
the  titular  ruler  of  Leinster,  to  recover  his  dominions.  In 
return,  he  became  his  son-in-law,  with  the  promise  of 
inheritance ;  apparently,  with  Henry's  tacit  permission. 
Two  years  afterwards,  the  latter  embarked  with  an  army 
at  Milford  Haven,  and  landed  at  Waterford.  Some  of  the 
petty  chiefs  made  submission  ;  taking  oaths  of  fealty,  and 
consenting  to  pay  an  annual  tribute.  From  Waterford 
he  marched  to  Dublin,  without  encountering  opposition, 
and  there  celebrated  the  Christmas  festival  of  1171.  He 
remained  in  the  country  until  the  following  Easter. 
Strongbow  was  confirmed  in  the  possession  of  the  chief 
part  of  Leinster,  but  the  King  kept  Dublin  and  the 
towns  on  the  Eastern  coast  in  his  own  hands.  In  a 
vague  sense,  the  conquest  of  Ireland  was  regarded  as 
complete ;   but   it   was    mainly  nominal ;   and    even    that 


A.D.  1 1 56- 12 1 5.]  THE  PALE.  20:; 

shadowy  rule  applied  only  below  a  line  drawn  from  the 
mouth  of  the  Shannon  to  the  mouth  of  the  Boyne.  It 
afforded  a  convenient  opportunity  of  making  peace  with 
Rome,  and  of  ending  the  strained  relations  that  had 
arisen  out  of  the  prolonged  controversy  with  Eecket  and 
his  subsequent  murder.  In  1172,  a  Synod  was  held  at 
Cashel,  and  a  programme  of  what  was  called  Church 
reform  was  laid  down.  The  feeling  of  the  time  was 
expressed  by  the  native  Archbishop  : — "  If  our  calendar 
wants  martyrs,  it  is  that  our  uncivilized  Irish  have 
always  reverenced  God's  service  and  its  ministers  ;  while 
our  conquerors  are  versed  in  slaying  saints." 

The  country  was  partially  divided  ;  Meath  remaining 
the  appanage  of  the  Crown,  to  balance  Strongbow's 
power.  Great  estates  were  allotted  to  other  English 
families.  Native  laws  were  allowed  to  remain  operative  ; 
and  in  this  loose  way  the  supremacy  of  England  was  said 
to  be  established.  In  11 75,  the  limits  of  the  English 
Pale  were  defined,  consisting  of  Dublin,  with  its  appur- 
tenances, Meath,  Leinster,  and  the  country  from  Water- 
ford  to  Dungarvan ;  though  the  limits  varied  from  time 
to  time.  The  designation  arose  because  the  English,  for 
protection,  enclosed  and  impaled  themselves  within 
certain  territories.  This  district  was  held  to  be  immedi- 
ately subject  to  the  King  of  England  and  his  barons ;  but 
the  tenure  was  precarious.  One  of  the  only  two  suc- 
cessful expeditions  under  John  occurred  in  12 10,  v/hen 
he  brought  to  subjection  the  titular  King  of  Connaught, 
who  had  occasioned  serious  trouble  among  the  English 
settlers  and  the  tributary  tribes.  After  this,  for  two 
centuries,  no  English  monarch  set  foot  in  Ireland.  The 
allusions  of  early  English  Chroniclers  to  active  contem- 
porary commerce  in  Irish  towns  and  markets  find  cor- 
roboration in  the  Dublin  Guild  Merchant-Rolls  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  and  in  the  municipal  archives  of  that 
city.  Among  the  persons  registered  as  having  license  to 
trade  are  representatives  of  almost  every  craft  from 
various  parts  of  England,  Wales,  Scotland,  France, 
Brabant,  and  Flanders.  Money-dealers  from  Florence 
and  Lucca  also  drove  a  thriving  trade.  Much  of  the 
business  was  transacted  at  fairs,  as  in  this  country. 
None   of    those   in    Ireland   retained   a   wider   notoriety 


2o6  REGAL  TYRANNY.  [chap.  xir. 

down  to  modern  times  than  that  at  Uonnybrook  ;  refer- 
ences to  which  occur  as  early  as  1204.  White  and  red 
cloths  from  Ireland  were  sold  in  England  about  the  same 
time.  Madox,  in  the  'History  of  the  Exchequer,'  gives 
a  contemporary  drawing  of  a  duel  respecting  a  piece  of 
Irish  cloth  stolen  at  Winchester  in  the  reign  ot  Henry 
III.  An  extensive  trade  was  carried  on  in  Irish  goods 
with  the  Continental  possessions  of  England. 

The  three  groups,  relating  to  the  Law  and  the  Judica- 
ture, to  the  Church,  and  to  Ireland,  which  have  been 
treated  in  this  and  the  two  preceding  chapters,  comprise 
the  most  important  events  and  measures  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  II.  Into  his  many  foreign  wars,  intrigues,  and 
perplexities  ;  his  fierce  and  frequent  domestic  dissen- 
sions ;  and  the  revolt  of  the  sons  whom  he  had  placed  in 
authority  over  various  districts  on  the  Continent,  it  is 
needless  to  enter.  Concerning  these  family  squabbles 
and  feuds,  of  which  enough  may  be  read  in  the  early 
histories,  Geoffrey,  one  of  his  sons,  is  reported  to  have 
said  that  the  detestation  of  his  family  for  their  father  was 
never  thoroughly  suspended,  except  by  their  hatred  of 
each  other.  He  added, — "It  is  our  proper  nature, 
implanted  in  us  by  inheritance  from  our  ancestors,  that 
none  of  us  should  love  the  other,  but  that  every  brother 
should  strive  against  brother,  and  the  son  against  the 
father."  Probably  he  had  never  heard  of  the  famous 
saying  of  Tacitus,  that  the  hatred  of  those  who  are  most 
nearly  connected  is  the  most  inveterate.  Henry  died  at 
Chinon,  in  1189,  aged  fifty-six;  leaving  his  wife  in  the 
prison  where  he  had  thrust  her  twelve  years  before,  for 
alleged  conspiracies  with  their  sons.  She  was  released 
by  them,  and  survived  until  1204,  when  she  ended  a 
long,  romantic,  and  eventful  career,  at  the  age  of  eighty- 
two.  It  was  an  unusually  prolonged  life  in  the  Middle 
Ages ;  for  the  rate  of  mortality  was  higher,  and  the 
average  duration  of  life  less  than  now.  Apart  from  her 
more  than  equivocal  character — not  worse,  perhaps,  than 
the  dubious  morality  of  that  age  tolerated — she  must 
have  been  a  woman  of  deep  insight,  great  energy,  and 
daring  ambition.  Unsubdued  by  her  long  incarceration, 
she  set  herself,  immediately  on  her  release,  to  intrigue  foi 


A.D.  1156-1215.]  CHARACTER  OF  HENRY II.  207 

her  sons,  and,  in  particular,  for  John,  the  youngest,  and 
her  favourite.  Her  scheming  diplomacy  for  the  exten- 
sion of  England's  Continental  possessions  ended  only  with 
hfe.  Her  implacable  husband  passed  away  with  an  un- 
revoked curse  upon  his  lips  against  his  eldest  living  scm 
and  successor,  Richard.  Was  this  remorse  for  his  own 
conduct  in  seducing  that  son's  betrothed  wife,  and  thus 
changing  him  into  a  bitter  foe?  It  is  a  shocking  story ; 
but  it  seems  indisputable.  His  fatal  illness  had  been 
aggravated  by  knowing  that  his  son  John  was  en- 
gaged in  one  of  the  revolts  that  continually  troubled 
his  reign.  He  has  been  styled,  in  somewhat  inflated 
phrase,  the  Founder  of  the  Common  Law ;  an  inaccurate 
and  rhetorical  description.  There  is  no  evidence  that 
either  by  intention  or  accident  he  laid  the  foundation  of 
that  great  unwritten  system  whose  decisions  have  slowly 
concreted  into  precedents  for  the  guidance  of  all  future 
judges.  As  has  been  shown,  in  the  tenth  Chapter,  it  grew 
out  of  the  circumstances  of  earlier  times.  He  has,  how- 
ever, alien  and  absentee  though  he  was,  left  upon  the 
constitution  and  the  history  of  this  country  marks  of  his 
strong  individuality.  The  period  was  one  of  amalgama- 
tion of  different  elements ;  and  whether  the  union  be 
regarded  as  chemical  or  mechanical,  it  helped  to  produce 
the  national  character  and  to  mould  national  institutions. 
The  re-organization  then  begun  by  able  prelate-statesmen 
and  jurists  was  carried  to  completion  under  Edward  I. 

Without  assenting  to  the  somewhat  extravagant  lauda- 
tion of  which  the  first  Angevin  king  has  been  made  the 
subject,  he  must  be  recognised  as  a  real  ruler  of  men. 
An  able,  exhaustive,  and,  on  the  whole,  a  discriminating 
estimate  of  him  is  given  by  Bishop  Stubbs,  in  the  preface 
to  his  excellent  edition  of  the  Chronicle  of  Benedict  of 
Peterborough,  and  Mrs.  J.  R.  Green  has  written  an 
excellent  monograph.  He  was  not  the  greatest,  nor  the 
wisest,  nor  the  worst  of  his  race.  His  character  was  a 
strange  medley  of  inconsistent  qualities.  He  was 
thoroughly  unscrupulous ;  yet  not  a  tyrant,  in  the 
proper  sense  of  the  word.  He  had  definite  aims,  and 
followed  them  unrelentingly.  Whatever  could  be  made 
to  contribute  to  their  accomplishment  was  used  without 
compunction.     Devoid  of  faith,  he  had  boundless  super- 


2o8  REGAL  TYRANNY.  [chap.  xii. 

stition.  The  half-savage  Angevin  nature,  with  its  bull- 
dog tenacity  and  vulpine  cunning,  was  united  to  rare 
mental  endowments.  Eminently  wise  and  brave,  he  was 
also  cruel,  lascivious,  and  false.  He  was  fertile  in  ex- 
pedients, which  were  planned  with  skill  and  carried  out 
with  promptitude  and  energy.  To  true  statemanship  he 
had  no  claims ;  but  in  political  craft  he  was  unmatched 
in  that  day.  Punctilious  about  trifles  he  was  devoid  of 
a  sense  of  honour,  and  his  religious  theory,  like  that  of 
his  namesake,  the  seventh  Henry,  simply  amounted  to 
a  desire  to  bribe  Providence  to  help  his  schemes.  Some 
of  the  impromptu  prayers  recorded  of  him,  as  having 
been  uttered  aloud  in  dire  emergencies,  are  mere  attempts 
to  traffic  with  the  Almighty.  Like  Napoleon  Bonaparte, 
he  heard  Mass  daily,  but  without  paying  decent  outward 
attention  to  the  ceremony.  During  its  most  solemn 
portions  he  was  whispering  to  his  courtiers,  or  scribbling 
on  his  tablets,  or  looking  at  pictures ;  or  ogling  women. 

He  was  commonly  regarded  as  being  ready  to  promise, 
and  equally  ready  to  break  his  word,  if  expedient.  He 
cannot  be  deemed  a  hero ;  and  to  patriotism  he  made  no 
pretensions.  A  noble  career  lay  before  him,  if  he  had 
chosen  to  pursue  it.  But  his  policy  was  directed  chiefly 
to  the  extension  of  his  vast  dominions  by  family  alliances, 
including  ridiculous  baby  marriages,  and  through  diplo- 
matic labyrinths ;  all  of  which,  as  usual,  proved  futile. 
He  was  astute  enough  to  avail  himself  of  the  services  of 
able  and  distin^;-  :shed  men.  Competent  administrators 
and  judges  were  needed  during  his  long  absences.  Out 
of  a  nominal  reign  of  thirty-five  years,  only  thirteen  were 
spent  in  England.  For  the  most  part,  his  visits  were 
restricted  to  a  few  months  or  weeks  at  a  time.  Thrice 
only  did  he  remain  for  two  years,  and  twice  his  absence 
extended  over  five  years.  His  exuberant  energy  taxed 
the  patience  of  his  followers,  and  wore  out  the  strongest 
of  them.  Most  of  the  Angevin  princes  were  restless, 
fitful,  and  tireless.  As  the  whim  seized  them,  they 
started  off,  at  a  moment's  notice,  regardless  of  the 
arrangements  or  convenience  of  their  numerous  retinue. 
Henry  the  Second  excelled  them  all  in  this  physical 
energy,  and  in  its  capricious  manifestations.  Peter  of 
Blois  (i 1 20-1 200),  one  of  the  court  chaplains,  describes 


A.D.  1156-1215.]    KNIGHT  ERRANTRY.  209 

in  lachrymose  terms  the  inextricable  disorder  attending 
the  King's  sudden  movements. 

Of  his  immediate  successor,  little  need  be  said.  His 
was  but  a  nominal  and  an  absentee  reign,  and,  in  itself, 
is  barren  of  incident  or  of  interest.  Alexander,  commonly 
Styled  the  Great,  is  derided  by  Pope  as  the  Madman  of 
Macedon.  The  epithet  is  not  inapplicable  to  Richard  I. 
(b.  1 157,  r.  IT 89-1 199).  His  exploits  as  a  butcher  of 
men,  his  wasteful  splendour,  his  heartless  extravagance, 
his  recklessness  of  human  life,  his  insatiable  thirst  for 
adventure,  his  tournaments  and  Crusades,  exhibit  his 
utter  lack  of  sympathy  with,  or  of  common  consideration 
for  the  English  people.  None  of  their  blood  coursed 
through  his  veins.  He  was  their  titular  ruler,  but  their 
actual  plunderer.  A  mere  soldier,  his  vices  were  the 
common  vices  of  the  camp ;  reeking  with  their  own 
foulness.  The  glitter  and  tinsel  of  chivalry,  and  the 
imaginary  delineations  of  modern  writers  of  that  incon- 
gruous and  contradictory  school  known  as  historical 
romance,  have  cast  around  him  a  false  glamour  which 
imposes  upon  the  unreflecting  and  the  superficial,  who 
mistake  military  glory  for  moral  greatness,  and  who  fail 
to  discriminate  between  solid  gold  and  plated  ware  in 
estimating  human  character.  The  glamour  vanishes  on 
close  and  impartial  observation.  Burke  has  instituted  a 
comparison  between  him  and  Charles  XH.  of  Sweden 
(1682-1  718),  the  Madman  of  the  North  ;  to  the  advantage 
of  the  latter.  He  was  only  in  his  eighteenth  year  when 
he  flashed  across  Europe  like  a  meteor  from  his  Northern 
latitudes,  leaving  behind  him  a  track  of  profitless  military 
splendour. 

Stigmatized  by  the  French  as  Le  Roi  faitieant, 
Richard  I.  was  nothing  more  than  a  knight-errant,  a 
military  Don  Juan,  or  a  magnificent  animal.  All  that  can 
be  said  of  him  is  that  he  ravaged  many  countries  and 
killed  many  men.  He  was  bold,  reckless,  coarse,  and 
brutal ;  murdering  hostages  and  captives  by  hundreds, 
in  sheer  wantonness;  deaf  to  pity,  to.  mercy,  and  to 
justice  ;  heedless  of  the  sufferings  of  others  ;  and  thinking 
nought  of  England  except  as  an  inexhaustible  reservoir 
to  supply  the  ruinous  expense  of  his  wars,  and  tourna- 
ments, and  escapades.  For  the  safety,  honour,  and 
16 


2IO  REGAL  TYRANNY.  [chap.  xil. 

■rf'elfare  of  its  people,  and  for  the  development  of  the 
country,  lie  cared  absolutely  nothing.  The  appellation 
of  Coeur  de  Lion  was  bestowed  as  much  for  his  ferocity 
as  for  his  fearlessness.  He  had  a  faculty  for  provoking 
quarrels  and  brawls,  in  a  spirit  of  mere  fool-hardiness. 
His  adversary,  Saladin,  so  far  as  is  known,  was  much  the 
nobler  and  greater  man  of  the  two ;  for  he  was  a  good 
heathen,  while  Richard  was  a  thoroughly  bad  nominal 
Christian.  "  The  devil  is  loose ;  take  care  of  yourself," 
was  the  message  sent  to  John,  the  brother  of  Richard,  by* 
Philip  n.  of  France,  when  the  King  was  set  free  from  his 
captivity.  His  wolfish  nature  appears  in  an  order  of 
1 189,  that  any  robber  found  with  the  Crusading  fleet 
"  shall  be  first  shaved,  then  boiling  pitch  shall  be  poured 
upon  his  head,  and  a  cushion  of  feathers  shook  over  it." 
If  the  unhappy  wretch  survived,  he  was  to  be  put  ashore 
at  the  first  port. 

Combined  with  Richard's  passion  for  fighting,  was  a 
lust  for  gold.  He  inherited  the  insatiable  avarice  of  his 
house.  His  name  is  inseparably  connected  with  an 
absence  not  alone  of  regal  faith  but  of  common  truthful- 
ness and  honesty.  He  had  the  negative  quality  of 
spending  freely,  and  even  .lavishly,  the  vast  sums  thus 
exacted.  He  squandered  with  fatuous  prodigality  money 
obtained  by  unscrupulous  oppression  and  by  the  sacrifice 
of  all  honour.  On  the  principles  of  justice  and  right,  he 
must  be  pronounced  one  of  the  most  barbarous  and 
brutal  of  English  princes  ;  if  English  is  not  a  misnomer 
in  the  case  of  a  man  who  was  wholly  of  foreign  lineage, 
who  knew  scarcely  a  word  of  the  language,  and  who 
spent  but  a  few  months  in  the  island  during  his  life  of 
forty-two  years.  Excepting  four  months  after  his  corona- 
tion, and  two  months  after  his  release  from  captivity  in 
1 194,  he  was  absent  during  the  whole  ten  years  of  his 
nominal  reign.  He  died  in  1 199,  from  a  wound  inflicted 
by  an  arrow  during  a  robber-raid  against  one  of  his 
vassals  in  Guienne.  Thus  by  a  sort  of  poetical  justice, 
this  boasted  pink  of  chivalry  met  with  an  end  as  dis- 
graceful as  that  of  Abimelech  or  of  Pyrrhus.  A  dis- 
obedient son,  a  faithless  husband,  a  selfish  ruler,  and  a 
vicious  man,  his  sole  and  consuming  ambition  was  for 
war,  which  he  loved  for  itself,  for  childish  delight  in  the 


A.D.  1156-1215.]   UNSCRUPULOUS  DEMANDS.  211 

din  and  struggle,  for  the  excitement  of  butchery,  and  for 
the  charm  of  victory.  No  thanks  to  him  that  his  pro- 
longed absence  on  hare-brained  enterprises,  and  his 
wasteful  outlay  upon  them,  did  not  ruin  this  fair  realm. 

In  order  to  meet  the  enormous  expenses  of  his  Con- 
tinental wars,  and  of  his  mad  determination  to  embark  in 
one  of  the  Crusades,  the  country  was  repeatedly  drained 
of  treasure.  It  was  a  time  of  unparalleled  exactions. 
Plans  devised  by  earlier  kings  for  raising  money  were 
resuscitated  and  enlarged.  Feudal  dues,  and  especially 
the  Scutage,  or  shield-money,  were  rigorously  enforced. 
The  old  Danegeld  was  revived,  but  in  a  more  stringent 
form.  The  wool  of  the  famous  flocks  belonging  to  the 
wealthy  Cistercian  abbeys  was  seized.  Church  plate  was 
confiscated  under  the  guise  of  a  loan.  Moveable  pro- 
perty, as  well  as  real  estate,  was  assessed  for  the  first 
time,  in  order  to  raise  the  sum  required  for  his  ransom 
when  captured  by  the  Emperor  of  Germany.  This  was 
fixed  at  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  marks  ;  equivalent 
to  a  million  and  a  half  sterling  of  modern  money;  and 
the  payment  impoverished  the  country  for  years.  Offices 
and  dignities  were  sold  to  the  highest  bidder.  The  royal 
domains  were  alienated  for  money.  Large  sums  were 
wrung  from  barons,  towns,  functionaries,  and  private 
persons,  to  meet  his  ceaseless  demands  or  to  appease 
his  real  or  assumed  anger.  Arbitrary  fines  were  imposed, 
as  in  preceding  and  subsequent  reigns.  The  Jews  were 
repeatedly  fleeced  under  circumstances  of  outrageous 
cruelty.  He  stooped  to  the  meanest  tricks,  and  was 
guilty  of  the  grossest  perfidy,  in  order  to  raise  money. 
Returning  from  the  Crusade  after  four  years'  absence, 
during  which  the  country  had  been  torn  and  rent  by 
faction,  he  annulled  at  one  stroke,  in  a  spirit  worthy  of 
a  Turkish  or  Persian  despot,  all  the  sales  of  royal 
domains,  and  resumed  possession  without  refunding  the 
money.  He  lost  or  broke  the  Great  Seal,  and  no  grant 
was  held  to  be  valid  except  under  the  new  one,  with 
a  fresh  fine.  All  this  tyranny,  borne  with  marvellous 
patience  for  a  time,  excepting  only  by  the  clergy,  prepared 
the  way  for  the  successful  struggles  with  despotism  which 
took  place  under  Richard's  brother  and  successor,  when 
his  own   erratic,   quarrelsome,  useless,  but   costly  career 


212  REGAL  TYRANNY.  [chap.  xii. 

had  ended.  As  grievances  became  weightier,  and  taxa- 
tion was  mercilessly  increased,  the  growth  of  commercial 
wealth  was  used  to  purchase  further  municipal  privileges. 
Richard  is  said  to  have  declared  that  he  would  sell 
London  itself  if  a  purchaser  could  be  found.  Thrre  was 
also  the  sure  growth  of  the  old  principles  of  liberty  ; 
and  these,  like  the  fibrous  roots  of  the  ivy,  were  to  rend 
and  shatter  the  stern  rock  of  tyranny.  One  incidental  and 
almost  unnoticed  step,  which  led  to  momentous  conse- 
quences, was  the  introduction  of  the  elective  system  for 
county  officers,  and  the  appointment  of  a  Grand  Jury  for 
purposes  of  assessment.  The  power  of  the  purse  was 
beginning  to  make  itself  felt  in  taxation  by  consent  ; 
and,  ere  long,  the  redress  of  Grievances  was  to  be  made 
precedent  to  the  granting  of  Supply. 

An  interesting  glimpse  is  furnished,  as  by  a  brilliant 
but  transient  side  light,  into  the  condition  of  the  people 
at  this  time.  Richard  was,  as  usual,  during  one  of  his 
prolonged  absences,  in  urgent  need  of  supplies  for  carry- 
ing on  his  military  escapades.  Various  mercantile  towns, 
and  the  wealthy  city  of  London  in  particular,  were  required 
to  meet  these  insatiable  demands  of  the  absentee  monarch. 
One  of  the  citizens,  named  William  Fitz-Osbert,  enjoyed 
much  consideration  on  account  of  his  zeal  in  defending, 
by  every  legal  means,  his  fellow-citizens  from  injustice. 
His  efforts  had  endeared  him  in  an  especial  manner  to 
those  of  low  degree ;  and  he  was  known  as  the  poor 
man's  advocate.  The  Court  party  nicknamed  him,  ironi- 
cally, "  the  man  with  the  beard,"  because  he  allowed 
it  to  grow,  so  that  he  might  in  no  way  resemble  the 
foreigners,  who  shaved  closely.  His  enemies  accused  him 
of  leading  the  multitude  astray,  by  giving  them  an  un- 
reasonable desire  for  liberty.  On  the  occasion  of  one  of 
the  frequent  levies,  in  1196,  the  leading  citizens  proposed 
such  a  distribution  of  the  common  charge  as  would  throw- 
only  the  smallest  part  on  themselves.  Longbeard  opposed 
them.  The  dispute  waxed  warm.  He  was  overwhelmed 
with  abuse,  and  charged  with  rebellion  and  treason.  He 
is  said  to  have  retorted  : — "  The  traitors  to  the  King  are 
they  who  defraud  his  Exchequer,  by  exempting  themselves 
from  paying  their  dues,  and  I  myself  will  denounce  them 
to  him."     He  crossed  the  sea,  went  to  Richard's  camp, 


A.D.  1156-1215.]  NA  ME  LESS  PA  TRIO  TS.  213 

and  claimed  peace  and  protection  for  the  poor  of  London. 
Richard  is  said  to  iiave  promised  that  x'vj^X.  should  be 
done  ;  but  thought  no  more  of  the  matter.  He  was  too 
much  occupied  with  his  military  affairs,  his  tournaments, 
his  troubadours,  and  his  love  intrigues  to  trouble  about 
a  dispute  between  his  Viceroys  and  simple  citizens,  on  so 
common  a  subject  as  taxation ;  so  long  as  ample  supplies 
were  forthcoming.  Hubert,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
and  Justiciar,  though  prepared  to  resist  regal  attacks 
upon  his  own  order  or  upon  the  baronage,  was  indignant 
that  a  man  of  Longbeard's  position  should  presume  to 
appeal  to  the  King  in  person,  and  on  such  a  matter.  In 
the  insolent  pride  of  authority  he  ordered  that  no  citizen 
should  go  beyond  the  walls  of  London  without  permission  ; 
under  pain  of  being  deemed  a  traitor.  The  great  annual 
fair  of  Stamford  occurred  at  that  time,  and  some  of  the 
citizens  went,  in  spite  of  the  prohibition.  On  returning, 
they  were  committed  to  prison.  This  high-handed 
procedure  was  protested  against  at  meetings  in  the 
market-places  ;  Longbeard  being  one  of  the  chief  spokes- 
men. It  is  not  improbable  that  he  said  things  in  his 
indignation  that  afforded  a  pretext  to  his  enemies.  He 
was  captured,  after  determined  resistance,  and,  though 
wounded,  was  dragged  at  a  horse's  tail  through  the  streets 
to  the  Tower,  where,  without  any  sort  of  trial,  or  by  what 
was  known  on  the  Scottish  border  as  Jedburgh  justice, 
he  was  instantly  hanged,  with  nine  companions;  "and 
thus,"  writes  an  old  Chronicler,  "  perished  William  Long- 
beard,  for  having  embraced  the  defence  of  the  poor  and 
of  truth.  If  the  cause  makes  the  martyr,  none  may  more 
justly  than  he  be  called  a  martyr." 

Such  instances  show  that  the  native  spirit  was  far  from 
being  extinct.  True,  they  are  few  and  fragmentary, 
and  they  tantalize  curiosity  instead  of  satisfying  it,  A 
common  bond  of  patriotism  arouses  a  wish  to  know  more 
of  what  was  passing  in  that  struggling  and  formative  age, 
in  the  husbandman's  homestead  ;  in  the  artisan's  work- 
shop ;  by  the  fireside  of  the  burgess  ;  in  the  wayside  inn  ; 
amidst  the  traffic  of  the  fair  and  of  the  market ;  and  in 
other  gatherings  of  townspeople  and  villagers.  Un- 
fortunately, the  old  Annalists  furnish  scanty  materials 
out  of  which  to  form  a  vivid  picture.     They  were  chiefly 


214  REGAL  TYRANNY.  [chap.  xii. 

interested,  like  modern  writers  of  what  J.  R.  Green 
designates  the  drum-and-trumpet  style  of  history,  in 
Court  scandals ;  in  battles  and  sieges ;  in  monastic 
intrigues  for  property  ;  in  lying  legends  ;  and  in  the  petty 
gossip  of  the  age.  Only  by  gathering  and  combining 
scattered  references  in  contemporary  narratives  is  it 
possible  to  present  a  general  view  of  such  matters  as 
come  closely  home  to  men's  businesses  and  bosoms,  or 
of  the  ceaseless  and  irrepressible  struggle  for  liberty ; 
although,  as  in  every  age,  there  must  have  been  "some 
hearts  once  pregnant  with  celestial  fires." 

After  the  time  of  Henry  II.,  circumstances  became 
favourable  to  a  modified  hereditary  succession  to  the 
throne.  This  came  to  be  the  rule  ;  not  by  Statute,  but 
by  prescription.  It  was  admitted  as  the  least  of  several 
evils.  But  the  national  right  of  choosing  a  monarch,  and 
of  declaring  his  rightful  accession,  was  never  surrendered, 
nothwithstanding  all  the  jargon  of  legal  pedants.  The 
Parliamentary  title  under  which  William  III.  ascended 
the  throne  after  the  Glorious  Revolution  of  1688,  and 
by  which  all  his  successors  have  ruled,  is  but  the  embodi- 
ment in  strict  legal  form  of  a  principle  that  can  be  traced 
through  a  thousand  years.  It  was  definitely  asserted 
alike  in  the  cases  of  ^thelred,  Harold,  the  Norman 
monarchs,  the  Angevins,  Richard  II.,  Henry  IV.,  Edward 
IV.,  Richard  III.,  and  Henry  VII.  No  man  had  a  right 
to  the  throne  unless  called  to  it  by  the  representative 
assembly  of  the  nation.  The  modern  figments  that  the 
throne  is  never  vacant ;  that  the  monarch  never  dies ; 
that  there  can  be  no  interregnum  ;  that  the  reign  of  the 
next  heir  begins  the  moment  the  reign  of  his  predecessor 
ends,  were  all  unknown  prior  to  the  time  of  Edward  I. 
Such  dogmas  of  venal  lawyers  and  of  sycophantic  cour- 
tiers slowly  grew  with  the  usurpations  of  royal  power 
under  the  Tudors  and  Stuarts.  But  the  right  of  Parlia- 
ment to  determine  or  change  the  succession  to  the  throne 
has  been  constantly  exercised.  The  latest  form  of  this 
was  when  the  Regency  was  conferred  by  Statute  in  17  88, 
and  again  in  1810,  during  the  insanity  of  George  III. 
The  existing  Royal  House  reigns  solely  by  a  Parliamen- 
tary title.     Its  right  is  as  good  as  that  of  Alfred,  or  of 


A.D.  1 1 56- 1 2 1 5.]  FRENCH  POSSESSIONS  LOST.        215 

Harold,  or  of  Henry  IV. ;  but  it  is  no  better  than  theirs. 
The  end  is  to  secure  the  common  good  of  the  nation,  of 
which  law  has  thus  settled  the  headship,  with  powers 
strictly  defined  and  limited. 

Spoken  of  with  accuracy,  if  the  claims  of  legitimacy 
and  of  strict  hereditary  succession  are  considered.  King 
John  was  a  usurper  (b.  1166,  r.  1199-1216).  Intrigue 
and  bribery  had  been  employed  by  him  and  on  his 
behalf  during  the  prolonged  absence  of  his  brother  and 
predecessor.  The  adhesion  of  some  of  the  leading  nobles 
and  clergy  was  thus  secured.  Through  them,  he  was 
installed  as  Duke  of  Normandy.  In  the  same  way  he 
was  chosen  to  fill  the  English  throne ;  thus  excluding 
Prince  Arthur,  son  of  his  late  elder  brother  Geoffrey, 
Duke  of  Brittany.  In  a  Charter  of  the  first  year  of  his 
reign,  John  is  styled  "  King  by  hereditary  right,  and 
through  the  consent  and  favour  of  the  Church  and 
people."  His  Continental  possessions  were  insecure. 
Richard's  death  was  the  signal  for  the  breaking  up  of 
the  overgrown  Angevin  empire.  Its  widely  scattered 
parts  had  no'  cohesion.  With  the  exception  of  Nor- 
mandy and  of  Guienne,  the  authority  of  John  was  un- 
recognised. In  less  than  seven  years,  the  former 
principality  was  lost,  with  the  solitary  exception  of 
the  Channel  Islands.  The  proud  line  of  dukes  who 
had  governed  it  for  nearly  three  centuries,  and  had 
become  more  powerful  than  their  feudal  lords,  the 
Kings  of  France,  was  at  an  end.  Not  only  the  broad 
inheritance  of  the  sons  of  RoUo,  but  the  conquests  of 
William  the  Bastard  in  Maine  and  in  the  Vexin,  the 
peculations  of  the  Angevins  in  Touraine,  with  all  that 
Henry  II.  had  acquired  through  his  mother  and  by 
marriage,  and  with  all  that  Richard  I.  had  plotted  and 
fought  for,  were  lost.  Nearly  the  whole  of  these  Conti- 
nental possessions  slipped  away  from  John,  like  a  sand- 
bank undermined  and  engulphed  by  the  remorseless  sea. 
Thus  the  territorial  work  of  the  Conquest  was  undone  ; 
though  with  untold  advantage  to  England,  which 
escaped  from  becoming  an  insular  appanage  to  a  huge 
Norman  Kingdom.  An  end  was  put  to  the  long-existing 
confusion  between  the  duties  of  the  barons  as  English 
and   as   Norman    feudatories.      The    constant    influx   of 


2i6  REGAL  TYRANNY.  [chap,  xil 

foreigners,  regarded  as  half-English  because  they  were 
Normans,  was  stopped.  The  country  began  to  be  ruled 
avowedly  on  national  principles,  by  her  own  statesmen, 
and  for  national  purposes.  Her  people,  gaining  strength 
at  the  same  time  from  other  sources,  hereafter  described, 
learned  to  look  with  less  tolerance  on  kingly  vices,  and  to 
endure  with  growing  impatience  regal  extortion.  The 
last  chance  vanished  of  making  England  a  feudal  king- 
dom in  the  Continental  sense. 

Philip  II.  of  France,  the  most  ambitious  and  conquer- 
ing of  the  line  of  Capetian  kings,  succeeded  in  wresting 
away  one  province  after  another,  and  he  annexed 
Brittany  after  the  capture  and  mysterious  disappearance 
of  young  Prince  Arthur  in  1203.  Unhappily  for  John's 
memory,  all  that  is  known  tends  to  confirm  the  suspicion, 
firmly  entertained  and  freely  spoken  of  in  his  day,  that 
he  was  guilty  of  the  murder  of  his  nephew.  Arthur's 
sister,  the  Maid  of  Brittany,  was  sent  to  Bristol  Castle, 
where  she  remained  in  durance  for  forty  years.  All  the 
Angevin  Kings  of  England  were  demoniacs,  in  a  sense ; 
culminating  in  John.  The  Chronicler,  John  of  Brompton, 
records  a  tradition,  which,  if  apocryphal,  shows  the  pre- 
vailing sentiment.  Strange  stories  were  told  of  an 
ancestress  of  Eleanor,  wife  of  Henry  II.,  the  mother  of 
King  John.  One  was  that  she  would  never  stay  in 
church  when  Mass  was  about  to  be  offered,  on  account 
of  some  alleged  crime.  Being  forcibly  detained  one  day 
by  her  husband's  orders,  she  mounted  in  the  air  with 
two  of  her  children,  passed  through  an  open  window, 
and  was  never  more  seen.  Concerning  this  tradition, 
Richard  I.  is  reported  by  Brompton  to  have  made  the 
grim  comment, — which,  however,  is  also  ascribed  to 
Heraclius,  the  Patriarch  of  Jerusalem,  in  an  interview 
with  Henry  II.  in  1185 — "We  came  of  the  devil,  and 
shall  go  to  the  devil."  The  personal  aspect  is  a  subor- 
dinate matter.  Of  wider  import  is  the  undoubted  fact 
that  the  Norman  and  Angevin  kings  hoped  and  tried 
to  establish  a  huge  central  military  despotism ;  with 
the  unexpected  and  unintended  result  of  bringing  the 
English  nation  to  the  birth. 

While  his  French  possessions  were  being  torn  away, 
John    became    involved    in    a    controversy    with    Pope 


A.D.  1156-1215.]         AN  INTERDICT.  217 

Innocent  III.,  who  had  dragged  France  and  Germany 
at  the  wheels  of  his  triumphal  car.  A  difficulty  arose 
over  the  appointment  of  a  successor  to  Hubert,  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  who  died  in  July,  1205.  The 
monks  of  St.  Augustine's  held  a  secret  chapter  and 
elected  one  of  their  own  body.  The  King  appointed 
the  Bishop  of  Norwich,  John  de  Grey,  to  the  vacant 
See.  The  Pope  set  aside  both,  and  nominated  Stephen 
Langton  ;  an  English  priest  then  resident  in  Rome,  who 
had  attained  to  the  Cardinalate  by  virtue  of  his  high 
character  and  great  abilities.  Events  demonstrated  that 
this  was  the  best  thing  that  could  have  happened ; 
although  the  new  archbishop  did  not  prove  to  be  a 
pliant  instrument  for  Rome.  He  was  one  of  the  few 
men  whose  patriotism  was  above  party,  and  whose 
religion  held  ecclesiasticism  in  check.  Not  until  12 13, 
however,  was  he  installed ;  owing  to  the  strained  rela- 
tions between  John  and  the  Holy  See.  Replying  to  a 
letter  of  remonstrance  from  the  former,  the  Servant  of 
the  Servants  of  God — a  title  first  assumed  by  Gregory 
the  Great — informed  the  King  of  England  that  there 
was  no  cause  to  tarry  for  his  counsel,  or  to  study  his 
wishes,  in  the  matter  of  this  appointment.  "  Commit 
yourself,  therefore,  to  our  pleasure,  which  will  be  to 
your  praise  and  glory  ;  and  imagine  not,  that  it  would 
be  for.  your  safety  to  resist  God  and  the  Church,  in  a 
cause  for  which  the  glorious  martyr  Thomas  hath  lately 
shed  his  blood."  This  last  reference  must  be  regarded 
as  a  menace,  addressed  to  the  son  of  the  King  who  had 
resisted  Becket's  pretensions.  The  tone  of  the  letter, 
and  of  many  other  Papal  missives  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
recalls  the  phrase  applied  by  Juvenal  to  one  of  the 
haughty  mandates  issued  by  the  Emperor  Tiberius : — 
"  A  verbose  and  grandiloquent  epistle  comes  from 
Capreae."  As  John  refused  to  yield,  he  was  excom- 
municated, and  the  kingdom  was  placed  under  an 
Interdict,  which  lasted  for  si.x  years.  During  that  time, 
no  public  religious  offices  could  be  performed,  and  the 
country  was  supposed  to  be  given  over  to  present 
heathenism  and  to  future  perdition.  Philip  of  France 
was  encouraged  to  threaten  an  invasion  for  purposes  of 
conquest.      To  avert  this,  and  other  impending  troubles 


2i8  REGAL  TYRANNY.  [chap.  xil. 

in  Wales  and  Scotland,  and  probably  also  to  secure  the 
highest  ecclesiastical  aid  in  the  struggles  which  had 
already  commenced  with  the  barons,  submission  was 
made  to  the  Pope  in  abject  terms.  John  surrendered 
his  kingdom  to  the  Legates,  and  received  it  back  as 
a  fief  from  Rome,  subject  to  the  payment  of  a  thou- 
sand marks  as  an  annual  tribute,  with  an  immediate 
fine  of  forty  thousand  marks,  and  compensation  for  all 
losses  sustained  by  the  bishops  and  clergy  during  the 
ecclesiastical  ban.  The  triumphant  settlement  was 
commemorated  at  a  high  ceremonial  in  St.  Paul's 
Cathedral  on  June  29,  12 14.  In  November  of  the 
following  year  Innocent  III.  convened  the  famous 
assembly  known  as  the  Fourth  Lateran  Council.  Four 
hundred  and  twelve  bishops  attended  from  all  parts  of 
Christendom,  besides  numerous  abbots,  priests,  and 
inferior  clergy.  Seventy  Canons  were  promulgated, 
asserting  in  the  strongest  terms  the  doctrine  of  Tran- 
substantiation ;  ordering  temporal  rulers,  under  pain  of 
excommunication,  to  punish  all  heretics,  especially  the 
Albigenses ;  and  making  stringent  provisions  for  the 
celibacy  of  the  clergy.  In  the  proceedings  of  this 
Council,  and  in  the  general  spirit  that  prevailed,  Rome 
may  be  said  to  have  attained  its  zenith.  Never  again 
were  such  arrogant  pretensions  made  as  those  which 
characterized  the  popedom  of  Innocent  III.  He  was  the 
last  of  the  Hildebrandists.  Gregory  the  Great  had  not 
reached  such  a  summit  of  power  as  was  displayed  in  the 
decrees  of  the  Fourth  Lateran  Council.  Not  that  there 
were  any  signs  of  decadence  for  a  long  period  ;  but  the 
utmost  limits  were  then  reached.  That  vast  conspiracy 
against  human  rights  and  liberties  recoiled  in  the  end 
with  terrible  force  upon  those  who  had  used  it  for  their 
own  selfish,  arrogant,  and  ignoble  purposes. 


A.D.  I2I3-I2I6.]  CAPRICIOUS  EXACTIONS.  2ig 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE    GREAT    CHARTER    OF    LIBERTIES. 
A.D.     I  2  13— 12X6. 

Concurrently  with  the  loss  of  the  greater  part  of  the 
French  domains,  and  with  the  prolonged  but  ineffectual 
struggle  against  Rome,  there  had  been  fifteen  years  of  arbi- 
trary rule  in  England.  Taxation  became  increasingly  severe 
and  capricious.  Henry  II.,  during  his  contests  with  the 
Church,  was  careful  to  retain  the  allegiance  and  support 
of  the  barons.  When  they  joined  in  the  revolts  of  his 
children,  he  found  means  to  secure  the  ecclesiastics.  John 
aroused  the  dislike  and  the  hatred  of  all  orders.  It  is 
true  that  he  inherited  from  his  brother  a  legacy  of  bad 
government,  of  monstrous  oppression,  and  of  crying 
grievances.  Close  acquaintance  with  him  disgusted  and 
alienated  the  English,  who  had  imperfectly  realized  the 
more  distant  faults  of  Richard  in  his  rare  and  brief  visits. 
John  was  ready  to  strain  the  prerogative  for  his  own 
ends.  His  attempts  at  personal  rule,  instead  of  ruling  by 
law  and  usage,  brought  him  into  collision  with  the  barons. 
The  ancient  relations  subsisting  between  them  and  the 
sovereign  had  undergone  important  modifications  in  the 
course  of  a  hundred  and  thirty  years.  Customs  tolerated 
by  the  earlier  Norman  Kings  had  concreted  into  rights. 
The  barons  perceived  that  their  interests  might  not  only 
be  different  from  those  of  their  feudal  lord  and  head,  but 
even  in  direct  conflict.  Since  the  practice  of  paying 
Scutage,  in  lieu  of  personal  service  in  the  field,  had  been 
generally  adopted,  the  bond  of  mere  retainership  had 
relaxed.  No  fewer  than  ten  such  levies  were  made  during 
this  reign  ;  and  in  increased  amounts.  These  heavy  and 
frequently-recurring  demands  were  met  with  growing 
reluctance;  culminating,  in  1213,  in  an  absolute  refusal 
on  the  part  of  the  barons  to  obey  the  King's  summons 
for  assistance  in  a  contemplated  renewal  of  the  contest 
with  France.  They  alleged  that  their  tenure  did  not 
compel  them  to  serve  abroad,  and  they  declined  to  follow 
him.  For  them,  Normandy  had  ceased  to  present  any 
interest  or  attraction.     The  descendants  of  Norman  and 


220  THE  GREAT  CHARTER.        [chap.  xiii. 

other  foreign  settlers  in  England  had  come  to  regard  it 
as  their  home.  Old  distinctions  of  race  and  blood  were 
obliterated.  It  was  the  consummation  of  a  work  for 
which,  unconsciously  yet  effectually,  kings,  prelates,  and 
lawyers  had  been  labouring  for  more  than  a  century. 

Other  exactions,  some  customary,  others  arbitrary, 
were  made  ;  such  as  taxes  on  moveables,  varying  from 
one-fortieth  to  one-seventh  of  the  value,  and  levied  at 
uncertain  intervals ;  a  carucage  of  from  two  to  five 
shillings  on  every  plot  of  land  that  could  be  ploughed  in 
a  season  by  one  plough;  taxes  on  goods  imported;  and 
other  special  imposts.  The  chief  opposition  was  aroused 
by  a  system  of  capricious  and  illegal  fines,  imposed  in 
excessive  measure  by  the  royal  myrmidons.  The  entries 
on  the  Fine  Rolls  of  the  period  show  that,  in  order  to 
replenish  the  royal  coffers,  money  was  extorted  on 
frivolous  pretexts,  imposed  in  ways  and  for  causes  almost 
innumerable,  and  with  a  fertile  ingenuity  such  as  tax- 
gatherers  have  displayed  in  all  ages  and  countries.  Fines 
were  levied  as  the  price  of  conceding  confirmations  of 
ancient  rights,  or  for  grants  of  new  franchises.  Markets 
and  fairs  could  be  held  only  by  such  payments.  Exemp- 
tion from  tolls,  pontage,  and  passage  could  be  secured  in 
these  ways.  Large  sums  had  to  be  paid  for  licenses  to 
trade  or  to  practise  an  industry  of  any  kind.  The 
records  of  the  Exchequer  furnish  copious  illustrations 
of  exactions  levied  at  that  time — often  under  the  euphe- 
mistic name  of  "  gifts " — for  purposes  which  would  be 
simply  ludicrous,  were  it  not  for  the  petty  and  grinding 
tyranny  revealed.  *  They  extended  to  almost  every  act 
and  condition  of  business  and  domestic  life.  Money  was 
necessary  to  secure  the  King's  favour,  to  deprecate  his 
displeasure,  to  obtain  his  good  offices,  or  to  expedite  or 
retard  the  course  of  justice.  A  fourth,  and  sometimes 
the  half,  of  a  debt  was  offered  to  him  in  order  to  obtain 
the  remainder.  No  one  solicited  the  royal  favour  with- 
out a  present.  John  suffered  from  what  Horace  calls 
"  the  contagious  itch  for  gain."  Specific  fines  were  im- 
posed in  order  to  remove  suits  and  processes  from  inferior 
tribunals.  Delinquents  could  be  bailed  or  replevied  by 
fines.  If  they  were  large  enough,  pardon  might  be 
purchased   for   trespasses,    misdemeanours,    felonies,   and 


A.D.  1213-1216.]    BRIBES  EX  TOR  TED.  2  2 1 

even  for  murder.  No  right,  enjoyment,  exemption, 
privilege,  or  immunity  was  too  trifling  to  escape  official 
notice,  or  too  important  to  be  above  its  price,  so  that 
flnes  might  be  levied  in  augmentation  of  the  royal 
revenue.  Government  chiefly  meant  the  art  of  extorting 
money  for  the  King's  selfish  uses. 

Perhaps  if  details  existed  of  the  Chancery  and  Exchequer 
proceedings  of  former  monarchs,  their  exactions  by  force 
of  arbitrary  rule  would  appear  as  odious.  But  the  griev- 
ance culminated  during  this  reign.  The  record  is  minute 
and  authoritative.  A  few  instances  may  be  given,  show- 
ing the  vexations,  losses,  and  injustice  to  which  the 
English  people  were  subjected  in  the  early  years  of  the 
thirteenth  century  by  royal  greed,  caprice,  and  despotism. 
The  citizens  of  London  paid  three  thousand  marks  for  a 
confirmation  of  their  liberties,  and  those  of  Gloucester 
paid  two  hundred  for  the  same  liberties  as  were  enjoyed 
at  Winchester.  The  citizens  of  Lincoln  gave  three 
hundred  marks  for  a  confirmation  of  their  rights.  The 
men  of  Burgh,  in  that  county,  gave  twenty,  and  a  palfrey, 
for  the  right  to  hold  a  market  every  Sunday,  and  a  fair  of 
two  days.  Geoffrey  Burgin  paid  one  hundred  shillings 
for  the  right  to  share  in  land  left  by  his  wife's  father. 
William  de  Cressy  gave  twenty  marks  and  a  palfrey,  that 
he  might  be  sued  only  according  to  the  law  and  custom 
of  England  in  an  impending  action.  The  Bishop  of  Bath 
presented  a  golden  ring  with  a  ruby,  that  an  action  might 
be  respited.  ^V'illiam  de  Braose  gave  three  hundred 
cows,  thirty  bulls,  and  ten  mares,  that  an  action  of  his 
might  be  accelerated.  Geoffrey  de  Mandeville  paid 
twenty  thousand  marks  for  leave  to  marry  the  Countess 
of  Gloucester  and  possess  her  lands.  Richard  de  Lee 
offered  eighty  marks  to  marry  a  rich  widow.  This  offer, 
though  accepted,  was  cancelled,  because  the  widow  con- 
sented to  a  fine  of  one  hundred  pounds  not  to  be  married. 
The  Countess  of  Warwick  gave  a  thousand  pounds  and 
ten  palfreys  to  remain  a  widow,  or  to  marry  only  with 
her  own  consent.  The  burghers  of  York  were  fined  one 
hundred  pounds  for  not  meeting  the  King  and  entertain- 
ing his  bowmen.  The  men  of  Worcester  paid  a  hundred 
shillings  for  the  right  to  buy  and  sell  dyed  cloth  as 
formerly.       Geoffrey  Fitz-Pierre   gave    two   good    Norway 


222  THE  GREAT  CHARTER.         [chap.  Xlli. 

hawks  for  leave  to  export  a  cwt.  of  cheese.  Richard  de 
Leicester  offered  fifteen  marks  for  the  right  to  an  office  in 
Southwark,  long  held  in  his  family ;  but  Robert  Fitz- 
Ardewin  obtained  it  by  outbidding  him  with  a  hundred 
marks.  The  Bishop  of  Winchester  was  fined  a  tun  of 
good  wine  for  not  reminding  the  King  to  give  a  girdle 
to  the  Countess  of  Albemarle.  Robert  de  Vaux  gave  his 
five  best  palfreys,  for  the  King  to  hold  his  peace  about 
Henry  Pinel's  wife  ;  evidently  referring  to  some  Court 
scandal.  Peter  de  Peraris  paid  twenty  marks  for  leave  to 
salt  fishes  as  Peter  Chevalier  used  to  do. 

These  are  but  samples  out  of  many  hundreds,  solemnly 
recorded  in  quaint  and  crabbed  characters  by  the  scribes 
of  nearly  seven  hundred  years  ago.  If  the  King,  in 
pastoral  phrase,  was  the  shepherd,  his  function  of  tending 
the  sheep  was  confined  to  shearing  them.  One  depart- 
ment of  the  Exchequer  was  devoted  to  the  Jews,  who 
were  constantly  exposed  to  the  rapacity  of  the  monarch 
and  his  officers.  There  was  frequent  connivance  while 
the  mob  indulged  in  assault  and  plunder.  Occasionally, 
there  was  a  ferocious  onslaught ;  as  in  the  time  of 
Richard  I.,  when  nearly  fifteen  hundred  Jews  were 
murdered  by  the  populace  in  London,  Norwich,  Lincoln, 
and  elsewhere,  but,  most  of  all  in  York.  John  had  all 
the  Jews  arrested,  imprisoned,  half-starved,  and  many  of 
them  tortured,  until  a  collective  fine  of  sixty  thousand 
marks  was  paid.  There  are  numerous  entries  of  Jews 
being  amerced  in  sums  ranging  from  one  hundred  to  six 
thousand  marks,  as  the  price  of  not  being  further  molested 
for  a  time.  These  despised  and  oppressed  people,  veri- 
table Ishmaels,  had  come  to  England  from  Rouen  in  the 
train  of  William  I.  ;  though  occasional  references  are 
made  to  their  presence  in  Saxon  times.  Their  money  was 
essential  in  the  squabbles  and  wars  that  were  perpetually 
waged  on  the  Continent.  The  Normans  were  largely 
indebted  to  them.  Hated  and  loathed,  yet  feared,  and 
necessary  to  the  impecunious  and  the  spendthrifts,  they 
amassed  wealth,  in  spite  of  occasional  outbursts  of  vio- 
lence, and  by  their  clannishness  and  mutual  resources, 
then  as  now,  rendered  themselves  masters  of  the  money- 
market.  Their  power  and  influence,  in  commerce,  poli- 
tics,   and   literature,    are   referred    to    in   the    fourteenth 


A.D.  I2I3-I2I6.]  CARDINAL  LANGTON.  223 

Chapter,     in     connection     with     their     expulsion     from 
England  by  Edward  I. 

The  instances  already  cited  of  taxes  and  impositions 
upon  nobles,  clergy,  and  citizens,  for  the  free  exercise 
of  common  rights  of  ancient  standing,  or  for  permission 
to  Hve  unmolested,  account  for  the  deep  and  widespread 
disaffection  that  prevailed.  Another  provocation  is 
alleged  by  the  contemporary  Chroniclers,  in  John's 
licentious  conduct  with  the  wives,  sisters,  and  daughters 
of  many  of  the  leading  barons,  who  are  said  to  have 
been  exasperated  by  his  boasts  of  having  dishonoured 
them  either  by  force  or  cajolery.  His  ignoble  nature 
stood  self-proclaimed.  Similar  conduct  towards  Lucretia 
led  to  the  expulsion  of  the  hated  Tarquins  from  Rome  ; 
and  it  was  the  proximate  cause  of  John's  ruin.  Com- 
bined with  innumerable  acts  of  oppression,  it  enrolled  in 
opposition  to  him  that  phalanx  of  barons  and  clergy 
which  proved  invincible.  It  was  against  his  personal 
dissoluteness  and  diabohsm,  as  well  as  against  the  system 
of  government  which  had  prevailed  more  or  less  for  a 
century,  but  reached  its  full  development  in  his  time, 
that  the  nation  was  at  length  aroused ;  with  the  effect  that 
its  ancient  liberties  were  asserted  and  regained. 

Discontent  had  been  fermenting  ever  since  John  came 
to  the  throne.  It  began,  indeed,  during  his  viceroyalty ; 
when  he  clearly  showed  by  what  methods  he  in- 
tended to  misgovern  England.  It  was  not  until  12 14 
that  measures  of  active  resistance  were  concerted  by  the 
barons  and  leading  clergy.  When  Archbishop  Langton 
arrived,  the  year  before,  he  made  John  swear,  not  only 
to  respect  the  rights  of  the  Church,  but  to  observe  the 
good  laws  of  his  predecessors.  In  particular,  he  promised 
that  justice  should  be  administered  according  to  ancient 
custom,  and  not  arbitrarily,  and  that  corporations  and 
private  persons  should  be  restored  to  their  rights  and 
liberties.  Without  this  oath,  Langton  would  not  remove 
the  sentence  of  excommunication  and  the  ban  of  Interdict. 
The  next  year  he  produced  in  an  assembly  of  barons  and 
clergy  in  St.  Paul's,  one  of  the  few  remaining  copies  of 
the  Charter  of  Liberties  granted  by  Henry  I.  Great 
pains  had  been  taken  to  collect  and  destroy  them  ;  and 
lew  escaped.     As   the   arts  of  reading   and  writing  were 


224  THE  GREAT  CHARTER.        [chap.  xiii. 

almost  restricted  to  the  clergy,  recollection  of  the  actual 
provisions  of  the  Charter  would  speedily  fade  from  the 
minds  of  unlettered  men.  Yet  the  absolute  ignorance 
concerning  it  seems  scarcely  less  of  a  historical  wonder 
than  the  re-discovery  of  the  lost  Book  of  the  Mosaic  Law 
under  King  Josiah,  and  the  sensation  produced  was 
corresponding.  The  Charter  of  Henry  L,  which  was 
in  itself  the  formal  declaration  and  assurance  of  much 
older  liberties,  enabled  the  barons  to  insist  upon  a  like 
confirmation,  with  necessary  extensions.  It  was  seen  to 
furnish  a  precedent  and  a  safe  standing-ground  for  a 
great  scheme  of  reform.  Contrary  to  his  solemn  pro- 
mises, John  was  marching  an  army  of  foreign  merce- 
naries against  such  as  had  refused  to  join  in  his  intended 
French  expedition.  Langton  followed  him  to  North- 
ampton, and  admonished  him  that  it  would  be  a  breach 
of  his  oath  at  his  recent  absolution  if  he  levied  war  upon 
any  of  his  subjects,  without  first  submitting  the  case  in 
the  Great  Council."  Threats  of  renewed  excommunica- 
tion were  made  if  he  proceeded  further,  and,  at  length, 
a  day  was  appointed  for  an  assembly.  It  was  evident 
that  the  barons  must  succumb  to  despotism  in  the  future, 
or  secure  their  freedom  by  a  bold  and  decisive  course. 

A  number  of  them  met  at  Bury  St.  Edmunds,  Novem- 
ber 29,  1 2 14,  and  entered  into  a  solemn  confederacy 
before  the  high  altar  in  the  Abbey,  to  obtain  a  renewal 
of  the  old  Charter,  and  to  withdraw  allegiance,  and  even 
to  levy  war,  until  this  was  conceded.  The  formal  demand 
was  made  at  the  Christmas  gathering  of  the  Great 
Council  at  Worcester.  John  temporized,  and  tried  to 
sow  dissension  among  the  confederates  ;  but  at  length  he 
promised  that,  if  it  were  in  his  power  and  consistent  with 
his  dignity,  they  should  receive  satisfaction  at  the  Easter 
assembly.  He  at  once  sent  an  embassy  to  Rome ;  and 
the  Pope  espoused  his  cause.  Such  aid  came  too  late. 
In  Easter-week,  the  barons  assembled  at  Stamford,  with 
a  force  of  two  thousand  armed  knights  and  many  re- 
tainers, to  receive  or  to  enforce  from  the  King  a  ratifica- 
tion  of  the  ancient  liberties  and  franchises.  He  was  at 
Oxford,  with  his  hired  bravoes  and  cutthroats,  drawn  from 
the  Continent,  whom  Langton  threatened  to  excommuni- 
cate, with  the  King  himself,  unless  they  were  dismissed 


A.D.  1213-1216.]      EXISTING  COPIES.  225 

Deputies  passed  to  and  fro.  John  offered  to  appeal  to 
the  Pope,  as  feudal  lord  of  England.  The  barons  re- 
jected the  offer  with  disdain,  and  formally  renounced 
their  allegiance.  They  proclaimed  themselves  the  Army 
of  God  and  Holy  Church.  Their  numbers  rapidly  in- 
creased. The  yeomen  in  the  counties,  and  the  burghers 
in  the  cities  and  towns,  flocked  to  their  support.  It  was 
no  longer  a  movement  of  one  class  or  of  one  order,  but 
it  was  participated  in  by  representatives  of  all  the  free- 
men of  the  land.  Vain  attempts  were  made  to  detach 
some  of  the  barons,  by  offers  of  special  terms.  Their 
army  marched  to  London,  where  they  were  welcomed  as 
national  deliverers.  John  retired  to  Odiham,  in  Hamp- 
shire, with  only  a  few  followers,  and  sent  to  express  his 
readiness  to  hold  a  conference.  It  took  place  early  in 
June,  12 1 5,  at  Runnymede,  between  Windsor  and 
Staines,  and  lasted  for  twelve  days.  John  resisted, 
evaded,  and  blustered  as  long  as  possible ;  freely  uttering 
his  usual  oaths,  "  By  the  teeth  of  God  ! "  and  "  By  the 
feet  of  God ! "  Blasphemy,  cajolery,  and  threats  were 
alike  useless  with  these  stern,  resolute  men. 

No  particulars  have  been  preserved  of  the  memorable 
assembly ;  but  many  of  the  articles  of  agreement  must 
have  been  long  and  hotly  debated.  It  is  certain  that  the 
King  very  reluctantly  yielded  to  the  restriction  of  his 
excessive  powers,  and  to  the  definition  of  his  constitu- 
tional authority.  The  rights  and  liberties  claimed  for 
the  nation  were  at  length  reduced  to  form,  and  engrossed 
on  a  skin  of  parchment  by  skilled  clerics,  preparatory  to 
the  final  settlement  of  the  perfect  legal  instrument. 
Vague  expressions  in  the  older  Charters  gave  place  to 
clear  and  emphatic  statements  of  popular  rights ;  and 
the  restraints  of  specific  written  law  were  imposed  upon 
the  Monarch.  A  copy  of  this  preliminary  schedule  is 
preserved  in  the  British  Museum,  which  also  contains 
two  copies  of  the  Great  Charter  itself  It  was  finally 
sealed  on  June  15,  after  several  days  of  stormy  debate. 
Another  copy,  with  some  additional  sentences,  is  in 
Lincoln  Cathedral  Library,  and  others  were  brought  to 
light  by  the  inquiries  of  the  Record  Commission  in  the 
early  part  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Copies  were  de- 
posited at  the  tinie,  for  security,  in  the  cathedrals  and 
17 


226  THE  GREAT  CHARTER.        [chap.  xiil. 

greater  abbeys.  These  venerable  parchments,  shrivelled 
and  faded,  are  pathetic  mementoes  of  a  successful  struggle 
for  the  restoration  of  national  rights.  The  Great 
Charter,  although  in  the  form  of  a  royal  grant,  was, 
in  reality,  a  treaty  between  the  King  and  his  subjects. 
In  express  terms  it  contained  only  one  part  of  the  usual 
covenant  between  two  contracting  parties,  but  its  whole 
tenor  implied  the  existence  of  the  other  part.  The  King 
granted  an  extension  and  a  renewal  of  certain  ancient 
liberties  and  customs,  on  the  understanding  that  he  was 
to  retain  the  allegiance  of  the  nation.  The  other  high 
contracting  party  to  the  capitulation  was  the  collective 
body  of  the  people ;  as  will  immediately  appear.  One 
effect  of  his  fifteen  years'  misrule  was  to  undo  all  that 
had  been  done  since  the  reign  of  Henry  I.  for  the 
strengthening  of  the  royal  power.  The  nation  became 
at  one  with  itself,  and  realized  its  substantial  unity  and 
identity  for  the  first  time  since  the  Conquest.  The  Battle 
of  Hastings  was  reversed  at  Runnymede. 

By  the  provisions  of  the  Great  Charter,  the  English 
Church  was  to  retain  her  ancient  rights  and  liberties. 
Relief  was  afforded  to  tenants  of  the  Crown  from  the 
more  stringent  feudal  bonds,  especially  in  the  matter  of 
payments  on  death,  which  had  become  arbitrary  and 
excessive.  Heirs,  being  minors,  were  to  be  protected 
from  mercenary  men  to  whom  they  had  been  assigned 
as  wards  for  a  money  consideration.  Widows  and  female 
wards  were  secured  in  their  rights,  in  like  manner,  and 
not  forced  into  marriage  against  their  will.  Aids  were 
not  to  be  levied  without  consent  of  the  Great  Council, 
\\\  which,  according  to  the  fourteenth  clause,  there  was 
to  be  a  representation  of  the  smaller  tenants-in  chief,  as 
well  as  of  the  prelates  and  nobles.  This  was  a  virtual 
assertion  of  the  principle  of  representation  as  precedent 
to  taxation,  and  it  led  ultimately  to  important  con- 
sequences. Courts  of  Common  Pleas  were  to  be  held  in 
fixed  places.  The  encroachments  of  other  Courts  were 
restrained.  Illegal  fines  were  stopped,  and  also  the 
custom  of  seizing  commodities  and  carriages  for  the 
royal  use  without  payment.  The  oppresive  Forest  Laws 
were  mitigated,  with  the  scandalous  abuses  prevailing 
under  colour  of  such  enactments.     Foreign  soldiers  were 


A.D.  1 2 1 3- 1 2 1 6.]  PRINCIPLES  A P PLIED.  227 

to  be  sent  out  of  the  kingdom,  with  certain  specified 
royal  favourites  who  had  rendered  themselves  obnoxious. 
Some  temporary  and  pressing  measures  of  relief  were 
definitely  stipulated  for;  the  known  perfidy  of  John 
rendering  this  necessary.  Three  of  the  clauses  deserve 
to  be  quoted  in  full,  for  they  are  the  crowning  glory  of 
this  memorable  document  : — "  Nothing  shall  be  given  or 
taken  for  the  future  for  the  Writ  of  Inquisition  of  life  or 
limb,  but  it  shall  be  given  gratis,  and  not  denied."  "No 
freeman  shall  be  taken,  or  imprisoned,  or  disseized,  or 
outlawed,  or  banished,  or  any  way  destroyed  ;  nor  will 
we  pass  upon  him,  nor  will  we  send  upon  him,  unless  by 
the  lawful  judgment  of  his  peers,  or  by  the  law  of  the 
land."  "We  will  sell  to  no  man,  we  will  not  deny  to 
any  man,  either  justice  or  right."  Remembering  what 
has  been  already  stated,  these  clauses  were  essential. 
They  gave  security  from  arbitrary  imprisonment  and 
from  official  spoliation  ;  thus  providing  for  the  two  main 
conditions  of  social  order  and  safety.  They  also  estab- 
lished the  general  right  of  the  subject  to  have  the  fact 
of  his  guilt  or  innocence  of  any  charge  determined  by 
the  free  voice  of  his  equals. 

It  was  to  a  large  extent  a  money  grievance  that  led  to 
the  action  of  the  barons.  Fiscal  oppression  has  often 
occasioned  similar  risings,  and  has  brought  about  many 
reforms.  Four  Articles,  defining  the  way  in  which  consent 
was  to  be  given  in  the  imposition  of  taxes,  are  of  great 
historical  and  constitutional  interest,  for  they  admit  the 
right  of  the  taxed  to  regulate  this  vital  matter.  The 
Great  Council  had  been  thus  consulted  in  earlier  times  ; 
but  the  right  had  never  been  so  plainly  and  rigorously 
defined.  A  preliminary  but  essential  step  was  now  taken 
towards  placing  the  power  of  the  purse  in  other  hands  than 
those  of  the  monarch  alone.  The  principle  thus  estab- 
lished, that  the  consent  of  the  taxed  is  essential,  could  not 
long  remain  inoperative.  It  is  true  that  these  stringent 
clauses  were  not  repeated  in  subsequent  confirmations  of 
the  Charter  by  Henry  III.  The  statement  in  such 
definite  terms  in  John's  Charter  seems  to  have  been 
regarded  as  novel  and  startling,  and  better  things  were 
hoped  for  from  his  successors.  Not  for  eighty  years  was 
every  species  of  impost  expressly  forbidden,  unless  with 


228  THE  GREAT  CHARTER.         [chap.  xiil. 

the  consent  of  Parliament.  This  further  step,  secured  by 
the  great  Confirmation  Charter  in  the  twenty-fifth  year 
of  Edward  I.,  showed  how  regal  power  might  be  legiti- 
mately, peaceably,  and  effectually  subjected  to  legislative 
control,  as  expressing  the  national  will.  The  final  asser- 
tion and  resolute  maintenance  of  this  right  established 
for  ever  English  freedom.  All  this  was  to  be  accomplished 
in  due  time.  The  principle  had  been  asserted ;  and,  like 
water  slowly  percolating  through  a  small  fissure  in  a 
dam,  resistance  proved  ineffectual.  Changes  in  form, 
and  new  or  modified  institutions,  appeared  as  circum- 
stances arose.  Such  changes,  however,  are  always 
gradual.  A  perfect  ideal  has  never  been  set  up  in  the 
slow  process  of  framing  the  English  Constitution  ;  as 
Burke  clearly  showed  long  afterwards.  Some  un- 
endurable grievance  has  imperatively  demanded  redress. 
The  mechanism  of  government  proved  cumbrous  or 
defective.  Altered  circumstances  brought  about  a 
necessary  change.  Fresh  contrivances  were  devised  to 
meet  special  exigencies.  Occasionally,  they  became  per- 
manent. At  other  times,  they  were  abandoned  when  the 
immediate  object  was  attained.  But  the  effects  remain ; 
and  the  spirit  of  progress  never  dies. 

It  is  sometimes  erroneously  supposed  that  the  Great 
Charter  is  the  root  and  basis  of  existing  English  liberties. 
Many  a  rhetorical  sentence  of  fervid  oratory  is  rounded 
off,  amidst  the  enthusiastic  plaudits  of  excited  listeners, 
by  references  to  this  Palladium  of  national  freedom.  It 
is  not,  however,  a  new  code  of  laws,  nor  does  it  inculcate 
fresh  principles  of  legislation.  Its  framers  did  not  attempt 
to  disturb  the  settled  jurisprudence.  Their  object  was  to 
correct  evils  and  wrongs  which  had  grown  out  of  certain 
feudal  customs,  under  the  despotism  of  the  first  William 
and  his  successors.  The  remedies  devised  were  set  forth, 
for  convenience'  sake,  and  using  archaic  and  formal  lan- 
guage, in  a  Charter  "granted  by  the  King  to  his  vassals 
and  the  freemen  of  -the  realm."  This  great  historical 
document  had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  creation 
of  English  liberties.  It  established  no  new  Court?.  It 
made  no  innovations.  It  did  not  attempt  a  re-distribu- 
tion of  political  power.  But  it  accomplished  something 
greater,    better,    and   nobler.     Ancient   and   indisputable 


A.D.  1213-1216.]  AiXCIENT RIGHTS  CONFIRMED.    229 

public  rights,  that  had  been  filched  away  or  continually 
violated,  were  re-affirmed.  Abuses  that  had  crept  intvj 
the  administration  were  corrected.  Tyrannical  practices, 
incompatible  with  civilized  government,  were  forbidden. 
Barbarous  license,  on  the  part  both  of  kings  and  of 
nobles,  was  restrained.  All  this  was  done  because  the 
passionate  love  of  liberty,  transmitted  from  Saxon  times, 
was  unquenchable.  It  triumphed  alike  over  Norman, 
Plantagenet,  Tudor,  Stuart,  and  Hanoverian  attempts  at 
tyranny.  Thus  the  Great  Charter  of  1215,  like  the 
Petition  of  Right  in  1628,  and  like  the  Bill  of  Rights  in 
1689 — a  triad  described  by  the  great  Earl  of  Chatham  as 
forming  the  Bible  of  the  English  Constitution — did  not 
confer  fresh  privileges.  The  demand  of  all  true  reformers 
and  patriots  has  been  for  the  observance  of  old  laws,  the 
neglect  or  violation  of  which  led  to  grievances  that 
required  redress.  This  is  true  conservatism.  Precedent 
has  always  been  the  inspiration  and  guide  of  all  constitu- 
tional reform  in  this  country.  Englishmen  have  main- 
tained that  what  their  fathers  legally  did,  they  and  their 
sons  have  a  right  to  do. 

Thus  the  Great  Charter  is  a  summary  of  the  native 
and  inherent  rights  of  Englishmen,  which  Norman  Kings 
had  bound  themselves  not  to  abrogate  or  invade.  But 
it  was  not  a  mere  transcript.  Ancient  terms  were 
defined,  expanded,  and  strengthened ;  as  was  required 
by  changed  conditions.  The  document  is  a  link  between 
traditional  rights  and  those  secured  in  after  times  by 
constitutional  and  representative  legislation.  The  rights 
themselves  do  not  exist  by  virtue  of  any  parchment ; 
however  dearly  bought,  or  ably  drafted,  or  solemnly 
sealed.  They  are  the  prerogative  of  every  Englishman. 
No  Monarch  can  give  them,  or  suspend  them,  or  take 
them  away.  They  are  the  ancient  franchises  of  the  land  ; 
the  priceless  heritage  in  which  all  have  a  share.  By 
some  Sovereigns,  who  considered  that  the  Charters  of 
Liberties  were  extorted  from  their  ancestors  by  imperious 
necessity,  they  were  cunningly  evaded,  or  conveniently 
forgotten,  or  surreptitiously  suppressed,  or  openly 
defied,  but  they  were  invariably  reclaimed  by  the  people, 
who  rightly  regarded  these  documents  as  the  formal 
expression   of    their    inalienable   rights.      These,    as   has 


230  THE  GREAT  CHARTER.        [chap.  xui. 

been  pointed  out,  were  not  fully  enjoyed  until  after 
eighty  years  of  struggle.  During  that  time,  many 
renewals  were  made  of  these  Charters :  a  sufficient  proof 
of  how  much  they  were  abhorred  by  rulers,  and  how 
highly  they  were  prized  by  the  nation.  With  important 
additions  and  specific  applications  the  Great  Charter  was 
ratified  six  times  by  Henry  III.  ;  thrice  by  Edward  I.  ; 
fifteeh  times  by  Edward  III.  ;  six  times  by  Henry  IV.  ; 
and  once  each  by  Henry  V.  and  Henry  VI.  Ever  since 
it  has  been  appealed  to  as  the  decisive  authority  on 
behalf  of  the  people,  as  the  varying  necessities  of  the 
times  required.  Its  framers  might  have  paused,  if  they  had 
foreseen  what  it  involved.  Within  words  intended  only 
to  apply  to  existing  evils,  mainly  due  to  feudalism,  there 
lay  concealed  truths  of  far  wider  scope,  waiting  to  be 
applied  in  more  auspicious  days.  Regular  meetings  of 
the  Great  Council  were  insisted  upon  for  the  purpose  of 
controlling  the  Throne ;  leading,  by  the  inexorable  logic 
of  events,  to  forms  of  popular  election  which  effectually 
controlled  the  nobility.  The  assumed  authority  to  pro- 
test against  the  unrestrained  power  of  taxation  by  the 
prince,  led  to  that  power  being  forfeited  in  a  like  case 
which  was  supposed  to  be  reserved  to  the  barons.  In 
almost  every  clause  the  rights  of  the  commonalty  are 
asserted  or  implied.  The  interest  of  the  freeholder  is 
coupled  with  that  of  the  barons  and  knights.  The  stock 
of  the  merchant,  and  even  the  "wainage"  of  the  villein, 
are  protected  from  undue  severity  of  amercement ;  as  well 
as  the  settled  estate  of  the  earldom  or  the  barony.  For 
the  first  time,  the  English  people,  irrespective  of  rank, 
appear  as  a  united  whole.  In  every  case  in  which  the 
privilege  of  the  simple  freeman  is  not  secured  by  terms 
that  primarily  affect  the  baron  or  the  knight,  a  sup- 
plementary clause  is  added  to  define  and  protect  it. 

Probably  the  barons  did  not  perceive  the  logical  and 
ultimate  tendencies.  Few  men  are  gifted  with  prescience. 
It  is  easy  to  be  wise  after  the  event.  They  may  not, 
consciously,  have  stipulated  for  an  acknowledgment  of 
the  political  rights  of  the  whole  nation  ;  although  it  is 
significant  that  one-third  of  the  Articles  relate  to  promises 
and  guarantees  made  on  behalf  of  the  people  at  large. 
In  struggling  for  relief  from  pressing  evils,  they  secured 


A.D.  1213-1216.]      JOHN'S  EVASION.  231 

for  after  generations  the  right  to  claim  immunity  from 
similar  evils.  Doubtless  they  would  have  repudiated 
with  surprise,  if  not  with  scorn,  the  glittering  rhetorical 
praise  accorded  to  them  by  the  Earl  of  Chatham,  in  one 
of  his  famous  speeches  in  the  House  of  Lords,  when  he 
compared  these  Iron  Barons  to  the  Silken  Barons  of 
modern  days.  For  all  this,  honour  must  not  be  withheld 
from  these  strong,  stern,  resolute  men,  for  what  they 
accomplished.  Stephen  Langton  claims  grateful  and 
perpetual  remembrance.  The  cardinalate  never  rested 
on  more  worthy  shoulders.  The  rank  of  a  Prince  of 
the  Church  was  ennobled  by  the  wearer.  In  an  un- 
lettered age,  he  cultivated  with  success  the  highest  learn- 
ing with  the  accomplishments  and  graces  of  literature. 
Jahn  attributes  to  him  the  division  of  the  Vulgate  Bible 
into  chapters.  Next  to  Ba^da,  he  was  the  most  volu- 
minous and  original  commentator  on  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
He  left  a  large  number  of  sermons,  and  was  famed  as  a 
historian  and  a  poet.  At  a  time  and  under  circumstances 
apparently  unfavourable  to  the  growth  of  freedom,  he 
placed  himself  at  the  head  of  a  great  movement,  which 
he  guided  with  consummate  skill  and  courage  to  a 
successful  issue.  The  representative  of  a  mighty  eccle- 
siastical hierarchy,  the  recognised  leader  of  the  national 
Church,  he  never  forgot  that  he  was  also  an  Englishman 
and  that  it  behoved  him  to  act  as  a  patriot.  He  revived 
the  traditions  of  the  Church  in  her  best  days,  when  she 
was  a  barrier  against  regal  oppression,  and  sided  with 
the  general  interests  of  humanity.  No  official  list 
remains  of  those  who  followed  this  distinguished  leader, 
but  many  of  the  barons  are  enumerated  by  Matthew 
Paris  as  being  present  and  taking  an  active  part  in  the 
assembly  at  Stamford.  Some  of  them  adhered  to 
John  as  long  as  possible,  but  were  at  length  con- 
strained to  abandon  him  and  join  the  larger  number 
who  from  the  first  had  taken  a  decided  stand.  Their 
traditions  and  interests  were  opposed  to  feudalism.  Their 
relations  with  the  Continent  were  slight ;  compared  with 
those  of  the  old  Norman  nobility. 

John  remained  obstinate,  until  all  but  his  foreign 
mercenaries  had  forsaken  him.  Then,  as  he  had  no 
longer  the  means  of  satisfying  their  rapacity,  he  sullenly 


232  THE  GREAT  CHARTER.        [chap.  xiil. 

yielded.  Owing  to  his  notorious  duplicity,  the  barons 
exacted  securities  for  the  performance  of  his  part  of  the 
compact ;  although  he,  like  themselves,  had  sworn  in  the 
last  clause  that  "all  the  things  aforesaid  shall  be  observed 
bona  fide,  and  without  any  evil  subtlety."  There  had 
been  so  much  false  swearing  and  crafty  evasion  on  his 
part — for  he  was  "  a  liar  of  the  first  magnitude,"  tC  *  "ase 
Congreve's  phrase  in  '  Love  for  Love ' — that  they  re- 
quired him  immediately  to  disband  and  send  out  of  the 
country  all  his  foreign  troops,  with  their  families.  It 
was  also  stipulated  that  for  two  months,  or  until  the 
Charter  became  effectual,  the  barons  should  remain  in 
the  City  of  London,  and  that  Cardinal  Langton  should 
hold  the  Tower.  Twenty-four  members  of  their  own 
body  were  chosen  as  Guardians  of  the  Liberties  of  the 
Kingdom,  with  power,  in  case  of  any  breach  of  the 
Charter,  to  make  war  upon  John,  who  exclaimed  in 
his  passion,— "They  have  given  me  four-and-twenty 
over-kings " ;  casting  himself  upon  the  ground,  and 
foaming  and  cursing  in  impotent  rage.  Such  precautions 
were  imperative  in  dealing  with  one  so  faithless.  Pro- 
bably nothing  better  could  have  been  devised  at  the 
moment ;  but  it  could  not  serve  as  an  abiding  system. 

The  sequel  proved  that  he  did  not  intend  to  keep  faith. 
No  promises  or  oaths  could  bind  such  a  man,  any  more 
than  Samson  could  be  bound  by  the  arts  of  the  Philis- 
tines. He  again  appealed  secretly  to  Rome ;  invoking  the 
powerful  interposition  of  the  Pope,  and  representing  the 
concessions  extorted  from  him  as  contumely  offered  to 
his  liege-lord.  A  Bull  was  issued  in  response,  declaring 
the  Charter  null  and  void,  absolving  him  from  his  oath, 
and  prohibiting  him,  under  pain  of  anathema,  from 
observing  it,  and  the  barons  from  exacting  compliance. 
Langton  refused  to  publish  this,  or  to  pronounce  on  the 
barons  a  sentence  of  excommunication,  as  he  was  ordered. 
Instead  of  doing  so,  he  and  the  other  bishops  denounced 
and  threatened  to  excommunicate  all  who  violated  the 
Charter.  For  this  he  was  suspended  from  his  high 
functions,  and  did  not  regain  them  until  after  the  death 
of  Innocent  III.  in  the  following  year.  Even  when  the 
Papal  decree  was  promulgated  in  England,  it  produced 
but  little  effect.     Most  of  the  clergy  were  on  the  populat 


A.D.  12 1 3-1 2 16.]  OVERTURES  TO  THE  DAUPHIN.  233 

side.  They  had  to  choose  between  the  Crown  and  the 
nation.  They  adhered  to  the  latter,  in  spite  of  the 
attitude  of  the  Papacy.  They  maintained  the  cause  of 
Uberty,  hand  in  hand  with  the  barons  against  the  King, 
as  they  had  before  stood  in  the  cause  of  hberty  against 
the  barons.  At  that  period,  the  clergy  were  more  national 
than  Papal ;  whatever  they  became  in  the  course  of  a 
century.  Let  honour  be  done  to  the  prelate-statesmen 
and  patriots  of  that  age  and  the  one  succeeding,  whose 
claims  on  the  gratitude  and  reverence  of  posterity  can 
never  be  forgotten  and  must  not  be  disparaged.  Stephen 
Langton,  Robert  Grosseteste,  Adam  Marsh,  the  Canta- 
lupes,  Robert  Winchelsey,  John  Stratford,  William  of 
Wykeham,  and  other  archbishops  and  bishops — men 
differing  in  character  and  ability,  having  immediate 
purposes  to  achieve,  and  varying  in  importance — form 
an  illustrious  line  to  whom  subsequent  liberties  are 
largely  indebted. 

John  did  not  solely  rely  on  such  friendly  fulminations 
as  came  from  the  Vatican.  Like  all  dastards,  he  could 
be  cruel  and  brutal,  as  well  as  false.  He  despatched 
emissaries  through  the  Low  Countries  to  enlist  the  aid 
of  fresh  mercenary  troops.  Hordes  of  these  ferocious 
adventurers  speedily  flocked  over,  as  in  the  days  of 
William  the  Norman,  attracted  by  high  pay  and  the 
hope  of  plunder.  As  he  had  burnt  Tours  and  Le  Mans 
with  wanton  vindictiveness  in  1202,  so  now  he  ordered 
or  connived  at  the  diabolical  conduct  of  his  foreign 
hirelings.  They  were  let  loose  against  the  estates  and 
tenants  of  the  barons.  The  inhabitants,  driven  from 
their  homes,  were  robbed  of  everything  they  possessed, 
and  many  were  butchered  on  their  own  hearthstones. 
The  chief  scenes  of  these  outrages  were  the  district  from 
Nottingham  to  the  Northern  parts  of  Yorkshire,  and  the 
Fen  region  of  Lincolnshire.  The  marauding  expedition, 
like  that  of  William  L  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  pre- 
viously, was  one  prolonged  course  of  rapine,  fire,  cruelty, 
and  lust.  At  the  same  time,  the  King's  bastard  brother, 
the  Earl  of  Salisbury,  with  another  mercenary  army,  was 
ravaging  the  South  of  England.  This  state  of  things 
continued  through  three  dreary  months,  and  might  have 
led  to  a  general  Civil  War,  or  to  the  carrying  out  of  a 


234  THE  GREAT  CHARTER.        [chap.  xill. 

project  that  was  actually  begun,  to  place  on  the  throne 
of  England  Louis,  son  of  King  Philip  II.  of  France,  and 
the  husband  of  John's  niece.  Each  side  was  prepared 
for  the  conflict,  and  a  crisis  seemed  imminent.  Place 
after  place  surrendered  or  was  captured.  London  was 
the  principal  city  that  remained  to  the  supporters  of  the 
Great  Charter.  In  this  extremity,  the  overtures  were 
made  to  Louis,  who  accepted  the  proposal  and  came  over 
with  a  large  body  of  troops.  When  John  fled  before 
him  from  Winchester  he  had  the  city  fired  in  four  places 
as  he  abandoned  it.  The  future  destinies  of  England 
were  trembling  in  the  balance,  for  if  the  scheme  had 
been  effected,  she  would  have  become  a  part  of  the, 
French  Kingdom,  Fortunately,  the  catastrophe  of  such 
an  absorption,  as  well  as  the  danger  of  an  impending 
Civil  War,  were  averted  by  the  sudden  illness  and 
death  of  John,  on  October  i6,  1216,  in  the  forty-ninth 
year  of  his  age  and  the  seventeenth  of  his  contemptible 
reign.  In  this  appropriate  manner,  one  of  the  most  despi- 
cable men  drops  out  of  history.  A  contemporary  verdict 
is, — "  Foul  as  it  is,  Hell  itself  is  defiled  by  the  fouler 
presence  of  John."  Not  that  he  was  the  mere  volup- 
tuary commonly  described.  He  was  that,  in  a  shameless 
degree,  with  superadded  dissimulation,  treachery,  cruelty, 
and  avarice.  In  these  respects,  he  was  as  bad  as  the 
worst  of  the  Angevin  race  whence  he  sprung.  Like 
them,  he  possessed  great  natural  capacity.  Like  them, 
too,  he  was  superstitious  ;  with  a  scoffing  indifference  to 
religion.  Yet  he  was  not  the  indolent,  foolish,  incom- 
petent creature  commonly  depicted.  He  could  be  bold, 
prompt,  fertile  in  resource,  and  daring  in  war.  Like 
many  royal  despots,  he  could  be  agreeable  and  genial, 
when  it  suited  him,  especially  with  women  ;  though  he 
did  not  scruple  to  sacrifice  them  when  the  transient 
passion  was  gratified.  Some  of  the  best  and  the  worst 
of  the  demoniacal  Angevin  nature  appeared  in  him ;  but 
the  worst  largely  predominated. 

The  long  and  fluctuating  series  of  Struggles  for 
Liberty,  from  the  time  of  the  Norman  Infusion,  was 
the  necessary  preparative  to  a  period  of  National 
Formation. 


Period  III.— FORMATION. 

AD.  1216-1327. 
Chapter. 

14. — The  Papacy  and  the  Friars. 

15. — King,  Barons,  and  Commons. 

16. — Law  and  the  Judicature. 

17.— Disputes  with  the  Clergy. 

18. — Scottish  Affairs. 

19. — Domestic  Manners  in  the  Thirteenth  and 

Fourteenth  Centuries. 

20. — Agriculture,  Travelling,  Era 


236         THE  PAPACY  AND  THE  FRIARS,  [chap.  xiv. 
CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE   PAPACY   AND    THE    FRIARS. 
A.D.    I216-I246. 

At  the  time  of  John's  death,  his  eldest  son  was  only  ten 
years  of  age.  It  seemed  extremely  doubtful  whether  he 
would  succeed  to  the  throne.  I^ouis  of  France  was  still 
in  England,  at  the  head  of  those  barons  who  had  invited 
him  over.  He  was  not  disposed  to  surrender  what  he 
had  gained,  or  to  forego  the  chance  of  securing  an  insular 
kingdom.  A  Civil  War  appeared  inevitable.  The  greed 
of  his  followers,  and  his  bestowal  upon  them  of  places 
and  of  wealth,  to  the  exclusion  of  his  English  supporters, 
angered  many  of  the  latter.  After  several  slight  losses, 
he  was  signally  defeated  in  a  contest  at  Lincoln,  in  1 2 1 7. 
He  then  abandoned  the  project  and  returned  to  France 
where  urgent  affairs  awaited  him.  William  Mareschal, 
or  Marshall,  Earl  of  Pembroke,  used  his  great  influence 
with  the  barons,  and  induced  them  to  consent 'to  the 
coronation  of  the  boy -king,  Henry  III.  (b.  1206,  r. 
1216-1272),  which  was  performed  in  Gloucester  Abbey, 
October  28,  12 16;  twelve  days  after  his  father's  death. 
Pembroke  was  chosen  Protector  of  the  kingdom  during 
the  minority.  His  first  act  was  the  renewal  of  the  Great 
Charter.  Orders  were  sent  in  the  royal  name  to  the" 
Sheriffs  of  all  the  counties  for  this  to  be  pubUcly  read  in 
their  courts,  and  they  were  strictly  enjoined  to  see  that 
its  provisions  were  observed.  The  vital  clause  protecting 
the  subject  from  arbitrary  taxation  was,  however,  omitted ; 
nor  did  it  re-appear  in  subsequent  confirmations  during 
this  long  reign.  Doubtless  its  novelty  was  felt  to  be  an 
encroachment  on  the  prerogative,  or  better  things  were 
hoped  for. 

Writers  of  the  period  speak  of  the  high  opinion  in 
which  the  Protector  was  held.  He  endeavoured  to 
restore  peace  and  confidence  among  the  nobles.  He 
urged  that  past  offences  and  complaints  should  be  for- 
gotten. An  amnesty  was  proclaimed,  and  his  known 
character  inspired  confidence  that  this  would  be  observed. 
He  ruled  England  wisely  and  justly.      Her  rights  were 


A.D.  1 2 16-1246.]         PAPAL  CLAIMS.  lyj 

guarded  against  the  attacks  of  the  Papacy.  Had  Pembroke 
lived,  Henry  HI.  might  have  been  spared  much  subse- 
quent trouble  ;  but  the  Earl  died  in  May,  1219,  and  his 
successors  were  not  so  strong,  or  wise,  or  patriotic  as  he 
had  shown  himself.  Four  years  later,  at  the  request  of 
Hubert  de  Burgh,  the  Justiciar,  Pope  Honorius  HI.  (r. 
1 2 16-1227)  issued  a  Bull,  declaring  Henry  of  full  age — 
he  was  then  seventeen — and  ordering  all  who  held  any  of 
the  royal  property  to  surrender  it.  The  barons  feared 
that  he  might  disavow  what  had  been  done  during  his 
minority ;  therefore,  when  an  Aid  was  demanded  to 
commence  a  war  against  France,  it  was  given  only  on 
condition  of  the  Charters  being  again  confirmed.  During 
the  first  forty  years  of  this  prolonged  but  inglorious 
reign,  prodigality  and  favouritism  prevailed.  These 
brought  about  ine\ntable  retribution,  and  led  to  the 
widening  and  consolidation  of  popular  rights.  Seeds 
planted  ages  before,  like  the  acorn,  had  slowly  germinated. 
Liberties  long  kept  in  abeyance  were  reclaimed.  "  The 
strong  man,"  to  quote  the  sublime  image  of  Milton, 
"  was  aroused  from  sleep,  and  shook  his  in\-incible  locks." 
As  is  always  the  case  in  political  and  social  crises,  and  as 
has  been  shown  in  the  history  of  the  Great  Charter,  the 
men  actively  engaged  may  have  had  only  a  dim  percep- 
tion of  the  ultimate  issues.  They  contended  for  relief 
from  pressing  grievances.  Yet  this  was  part  of  a  true 
development  in  the  eternal  law  of  progress. 

Only  two  series  of  events  in  this  reign  call  for  remark. 
The  first  was  the  struggle  of  the  nation  with  the  Papacy. 
The  other  was  the  continued  struggle  of  the  Crown  with 
the  barons.  Successive  Pontiffs,  carrying  out  the  policy 
of  Hildebrand,  had  gained  vast  power  over  all  the 
nations  of  Europe.  This  had  made  them  more  boli  and 
grasping.  Any  one  daring  to  oppose  the  demands 
made  was  stigmatized  as  a  heretic,  and  threatened  with 
condign  punishment  in  this  world  and  in  the  next. 
'J'he  successors  of  Pope  Innocent  III.  were  not  inclined 
to  lose  the  advantages  which  he  had  secured  over  such 
a  weak  and  unprincipled  monarch  as  John,  and  in  a 
country  so  rich  as  England.  The  Papal  scheme  was 
aided  by  the  feeble  character  of  Henry,  and  by  the  social 
disturbances  during  so  large  a  part  of  his  life.     Pandulph, 


=38         THE  PAPACY  AND  THE  FRIARS,    [chap.  xiv. 

the  Legate,  assumed  an  authority  and  swayed  an  in- 
fluence that  threatened  the  estabUshment  of  a  despotic 
rule  under  a  foreign  priest,  dictated  by  a  foreign 
potentate,  and  enforced  by  the  spiritual  censures  of 
Rome.  The  explanation  of  this  lies  on  the  surface. 
The  aid  rendered  by  the  Papacy  in  securing  and  main- 
taining peace  with  France,  was  recent  and  signal.  The 
reforming  party  was,  for  the  time,  prostrate.  Many  of 
the  nobles  were  absent  on  a  Crusade.  The  weakness  of 
the  administration  was  extreme,  owing  to  the  prolonged 
disputes  and  waste  of  war.  The  revenue  was  almost 
extinct.  Cardinal  Langton  was  still  under  a  cloud, 
though  he  had  been  restored  to  his  high  functions ;  but 
the  presence  of  Cardinal  Pandulph  was  intended  as  a 
restraint  upon  him.  There  were  unsettled  difficulties 
with  Scotland,  and  it  was  impossible  to  levy  any  taxes 
in  Ireland.  In  Wales,  Llewellyn,  bribed  into  temporary 
quietness,  was  only  awaiting  an  opportunity  to  resume  a 
clironic,  harassing  warfare.  The  truce  with  France  was 
about  to  expire,  and  the  few  remaining  English  provinces 
in  that  country  were  in  a  state  of  anarchy.  The  nobles 
at  home  were  quarrelling  with  one  another,  and  the 
governors  of  the  royal  castles  held  them  for  arrears  of 
pay  due  to  themselves  and  their  troops,  or  for  the 
granting  of  privileges  which  meant  tyrannical  monopolies. 
This  seething,  bewildering  maelstrom,  with  a  boy  as 
nominal  ruler,  and  without  strong  and  wise  hands  to 
guide  the  helm,  was  perilous  for  the  ship  of  State.  It 
furnished  an  occasion  on  which  Rome  eagerly  seized. 
At  this  juncture,  some  new  allies  arose  to  spread  and 
deepen  her  influence,  although  they  were  at  first  viewed 
with  suspicion,  and  even  were  disowned. 

Mention  has  been  made  in  the  fifth  Chapter  of  the 
earlier  Monks ;  including  the  Orders  of  St.  Benedict  and 
of  St.  Augustine,  with  the  Carthusians  and  the  Cister- 
cians ;  all  of  whom  had  in  their  time  rendered  great  services 
in  support  of  Papal  claims.  So  long  as  pristine  purity 
and  simplicity  were  maintained,  a  useful  work  was 
achieved.  With  prosperity  came  degeneracy.  Each  of 
the  Monastic  Orders,  as  it  became  rich  and  powerful,  also 
became  proud  ;  broke  its  early  vows  of  poverty,  cast  off 
its  stringent  rules,  and  forgot  the  purpose  of  its  existence. 


A.D.  1216-1246.]  MONASTIC  DEGENERACY.  239 

As  owners  of  extensive  domains  ;  living  in  stately  edifices; 
with  trout-streams,  fish-ponds,  chaces,  and  warrens  ; 
with  flocks  and  herds  innumerable  ;  and  exercising  feudal 
rights  over  large  bodies  of  retainers,  some  abbeys  and 
monasteries  wielded  an  influence  that  vied  with  baron  or 
with  king.  Lord  Abbots  and  Priors  were  little  potentates. 
The  wealth  of  the  great  monastic  foundations  was  a 
menace  to  society.  From  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century 
until  the  Reformation  they  continued  as  splendid 
hostelries.  Their  estates  enjoyed  great  advantages  and 
exemptions,  and,  on  the  whole,  were  well  managed. 
Their  abbey  churches  were  magnificent  shrines,  rivalling 
the  cathedrals  in  grandeur  and  costliness,  and  in  imposing 
ceremonials.  But,  with  a  few  honourable  exceptions, 
there  was  nothing  in  the  system  that  rendered  spiritual 
service.  Prayers  were  off'ered  unceasingly,  and  the 
prescribed  ritual  routine  was  gone  through  with  punc- 
tilious monotony  ;  but  the  spirit  of  real  devotion  had  fled 
from  the  stately  fanes  it  had  reared.  Elaborate  rituals, 
gorgeous  vestments,  fragrant  incense,  sensuous  music, 
and  a  rigid  observance  of  canonical  minutise,  could  not 
supply  the  place  of  zeal  and  charity,  of  righteousness  and 
faith.  These  spiritual  lotus-eaters  became  effeminate 
and  weak.  Their  exemption  from  episcopal  control, 
owing  to  the  mistaken  and  selfish  policy  of  Rome,  led  to 
their  escape  from  supervision,  and  proved  the  need,  as  it 
was  one  of  the  causes,  of  their  suppression  in  the  six- 
teenth century. 

The  latest  work  written  by  Giraldus  Cambrensis, 
probably  about  12 15,  was  the  'Speculum  Ecclesiae,'  or, 
the  Mirror  of  the  Church.  In  it  he  describes  with 
unsparing  hand,  and  in  terms  which  cannot  decently  be 
rendered  out  of  the  original  Latin,  the  monastic  de- 
generacy of  his  times.  He  gives  piquant  stories  of  the 
ambition,  worldliness,  corruption,  and  hypocrisy  that 
prevailed  ;  some  of  which,  it  must  be  hoped,  for  charity's 
sake,  are  exaggerated,  if  not  conjectural.  He  says  but 
little  of  the  most  influential  and  important  Order  of  the 
Benedictines.  His  severest  animadversions  are  directed 
against  the  Cistercians,  the  youngest  branch  of  that  Order, 
who  first  arrived  in  England  in  11 28,  and  settled  at 
Waverley  Abbey,   near   Farnham,    Surrey.      They   osten- 


240         THE  PAPACY  AND  THE  FRIARS,    [chap.  xiv. 

tatiously  renounced  all  those  indulgences  in  dress  and 
diet  which  the  older  Monks  thought  to  be  not  incom- 
patible with  the  strictness  of  their  profession.  Labour 
and  asceticism,  both  of  them  in  somewhat  obtrusive 
forms,  were  the  avowed  objects  of  their  rule.  For  a  time, 
they  were  highly  popular  and  successful ;  but  their 
reputation  was  short-lived.  To  them,  however,  England 
is  largely  indebted  for  the  improvement  in  sheep- 
breeding,  and  for  the  finer  kinds  of  wool  which  after- 
wards became  so  large  an  article  of  commerce  with 
Flanders  ;  as  well  as  for  an  improved  breed  of  horses  and 
the  introduction  of  superior  methods  of  farming.  The 
popular  estimate  of  the  older  Monks  appears  in  '  The 
Land  of  Cockayne '  (from  coquma,  a  kitchen) ;  an 
English  poetical  satire  of  the  end  of  the  thirteenth 
century.  It  describes  a  region  free  from  trouble,  where 
the  rivers  ran  with  oil,  milk,  wine,  and  honey.  The 
White  and  Grey  Monks  had  an  abbey,  of  which  the 
walls  were  said  to  be  built  of  pasties,  the  floor  was  paved 
with  cakes,  and  the  pinnacles  were  puddings.  Geese 
flew  about  roasted,  crying,  "  Geese,  all  hot  ! "  and  the 
monks  did  not  spare  them,  according  to  the  satire. 

Just  at  this  time,  by  way  of  protest  and  re-action  against 
these  effete  bodies,  and  as  their  avowed  opponents,  two 
men  appeared  in  different  places,  and  founded  two  new 
Orders.  The  members  were  not  to  flee  into  deserts,  nor 
to  remain  shut  up  in  monasteries.  The  spiritual  egotism 
which  in  some  sense  limited  the  work  of  the  cloister  to 
the  sanctification  of  the  individual,  was  to  yield  to  a  more 
comprehensive  range  of  duties.  The  new  votaries  were 
to  go  among  their  fellows,  in  the  village,  in  the  town,  in 
the  city,  in  the  market,  and  in  the  camp,  and  were  to 
subdue  the  world  by  preaching,  and  by  ministering  to 
the  temporal  needs  of  men.  They  were  not,  at  the  out- 
set, theologians  or  dialecticians.  They  propounded  no 
system  of  dogma.  To  preach  and  to  minister  was  their 
mission.  The  founders  of  both  Orders  were  prophets  and 
heroes,  though  differing  in  type.  Both  sought  the  un- 
attainable, and  pointed  to  a  high  level  which  ordinary  men 
could  not  reach.  Yet  they  were  of  use  in  their  day. 
Even  their  impossible  aims  and  ecstatic  hopes  were 
sublime.     St.   Dominic,  the  founder  of  the  Dominicans, 


A.D.  1216-1246.]  THE  FRIARS.  241 

was  born  in  11 70,  in  Old  Castile.  Twelve  years  later,  St. 
Francis,  who  established  the  Franciscans,  was  born  at 
Assisi.  Both  enjoined  upon  their  followers  poverty  and 
obedience.  Within  a  few  years  their  numbers  amounted 
to  thousands.  The  Dominicans  were  known  in  England 
as  Black  Frinrs  ;  from  their  dress.  The  name  is  per- 
petuated in  London  in  the  precinct  given  to  them  in 
1276  by  the  Corporation,  after  they  had  been  settled 
more  than  fifty  years.  The  White  Friars,  close  by,  were 
connected  with  the  Carmelite  Order,  whose  name  was 
derived  from  a  tradition  that  they  were  originally  founded 
by  the  Prophet  Elijah  on  Mount  Carmel. 

The  Dominicans,  though  they  arrived  first  in  England, 
never  obtamed  an  influence  over  the  people  like  the 
Franciscans;  who  lirst  settled  here  in  1224;  four  years 
prior  to  the  death  of  their  founder.  Within  thirty 
years,  they  had  forty-nine  convents  and  twelve  hundred 
members.  They  called  themselves  Minores,  or  Minorites  ; 
as  being  the  youngest  and  humblest  of  the  Religious 
Orders.  The  name  commonly  given  to  them  by  others 
was  Grey  Friars ;  from  the  colour  of  their  habit.  Dressed 
in  a  long  robe  of  coarse  cloth  ;  bareheaded  and  barefooted  ; 
begging  their  bread  from  house  to  house ;  dwelling  in  the 
most  crowded  and  unhealthy  parts  of  towns  ;  ministering 
to  the  poor,  the  outcast,  and  the  leper ;  the  voluntary 
poverty  and  self-denial  of  the  early  Friars  removed  the 
scandal  brought  upon  Christianity  by  the  pride,  the 
wealth,  the  ostentation,  and  the  superfluities  of  its  official 
representatives.  The  necessities  of  the  class  among 
whom  they  laboured  developed  a  suitable  style  of 
preaching  and  of  living,  such  as  people  could  under- 
stand and  feel.  Out  of  their  own  experience  and 
struggles,  these  men  uttered  plain,  earnest,  burning 
words.  Their  sermons  were  full  of  homely  appeals,  pithy 
parables,  bold  denunciations,  and  racy  anecdotes.  Men 
had  been  taught  that  clergy  and  laity  were  distinct  and 
opposite.  Religion,  hitherto  standing  apart  and  separate, 
was  brought  into  daily  life ;  appealing  to  a  common 
humanity.  Its  practical  aspects  were  constantly  presented 
by  these  teachers,  who  were  like  the  poorest  of  their 
hearers  ;  learning  alone  excepted.  It  is  not  surprising 
that  this  should  have  seemed  to  men  a  blessed  escape 
18 


242        THE  PAPACY  AND  THE  FRIARS,    [chap.  xiv. 

from  the  dryness  and  formalism  of  theological  contro- 
versies ;  or  that  Christianity  appeared  to  them  for  the 
first  time  radiant  with  attractiveness  and  beauty.  The 
intense  realism  carried  men  captive.  Still  more  was 
the  feminine  mind  subjugated,  through  its  instinctive 
reverence  and  love.  Shakspere's  delineation  of  Friar 
Laurence,  in  '  Romeo  and  Juliet,'  is  historically  correct, 
in  the  minutest  particulars.  It  shows  how,  notwithstand- 
ing the  prejudices  of  his  time,  he  represents  in  the  indi- 
vidual the  prominent  features  of  the  Order,  and  brings 
them  forth  to  the  gaze  of  his  readers,  unsullied  by  the 
base  alloy  of  later  and  corrupt  times. 

The  Franciscans  and  Dominicans  speedily  gained  great 
influence  throughout  Christendom.  They  called  them- 
selves Fratres,  or  Brethren.  Through  the  French  word, 
freres,  they  were  commonly  designated  Friars  in  England. 
The  antagonism  between  them  and  the  older  Monks  is 
explicable  ;  because  the  difference  was  one,  not  of  degree, 
but  in  essential  nature,  objects,  and  policy.  Complaints 
were  common  that  few  came  to  confession  except  to  the 
Friars.  They  exercised  the  special  right  of  absolving  all 
persons  without  distinction,  and  without  leave  of  the 
parish  priest ;  who  could  not  view  with  complacency  the 
loss  of  his  fees.  Matthew  Paris  shrewdly  suggests  that 
it  was  easier  to  confess  an  act  of  shame  or  sin  to  a 
strolling  Friar,  whose  face  might  never  be  seen  again, 
than  to  the  local  priest,  whose  conduct  was  probably  not 
purer  than  .the  penitent's.  It  is  not  surprising  to  meet 
with  constant  lamentations  that  the  parish  churches  were 
deserted,  that  clerical  dues  were  not  paid,  and  that  all 
clerical  authority  and  order  were  at  an  end.  In  former 
ages,  the  Monks  had  contemned  the  secular  clergy,  and 
largely  appropriated  parochial  tithes.  Now,  both  classes 
were  animated  by  a  common  dislike  of  the  Friars.  The 
vast  influence  of  these  mendicant  revivalists  and  agitators, 
exercised  with  aggravating  arrogance,  was  gained,  partly 
by  the  zeal  of  the  virtuous  and  sincere ;  partly  by  the 
mental  powers  and  force  of  character  of  some  of  the 
members  ;  and  partly  by  the  popular  belief  in  their  bold 
and  earnest  preaching.  Through  this,  and  their  self- 
denying  labours,  they  accomplished  much  good  for  a 
short  time ;  but  they,  too,  at  length,  with  a  few  honour- 
able exceptions,  violated  the  rule  of  poverty. 


A.D.  1 2 16-1246.]      THE  MENDICANTS.  243 

The  duration  of  their  pristine  simplicity  and  true 
grandeur  cannot  be  reckoned  by  many  decades.  Even 
before  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century,  Franciscans 
and  Dominicans  alike  had  succumbed  to  the  palsy 
induced  by  worldly  wealth  and  luxury.  They  became 
as  eager  for  riches,  and  as  proud  and  ambitious  as  any 
of  the  earlier  Religious  Orders.  Unlike  them,  they  were 
not  great  landowners,  but  they  accumulated  vast  posses- 
sions in  other  ways.  Finding  their  primitive  rule  too 
strict,  relaxations  and  privileges  were  obtained  from 
successive  Popes.  Urban  IV.  solved  the  difficulty  by  the 
ingenious  explanation  that  they  might  enjoy  the  usufruct 
of  their  possessions  ;  but  that  the  actual  proprietorship 
vested  in  himself.  This  verbal  jugglery  sufficed.  Cloisters 
were  built,  large  enough  and  grand  enough  for  palaces, 
and,  as  was  said  at  the  time,  "  fitter  for  magnates  than 
for  Mendicants."  Rich  persons  were  urged  upon  their 
death-beds  by  Friars  to  make  wills  for  the  benefit  of  the 
,  Orders.  In  hundreds  of  wills  still  existing  there  are 
entries  of  legacies  to  the  Friars  for  masses  and  for  other 
specified  purposes.  In  this  respect,  they  only  copied  the 
example  set  for  generations  by  the  older  monastic  bodies. 
Many  persons  thought,  and  were  encouraged  to  believe, 
that  they  could  not  be  saved  unless  they  had  a  Dominican 
or  a  Franciscan  for  a  spiritual  guide.  Numbers  also 
joined  as  lay-members,  on  purpose  that,  when  dying,  they 
might  be  wrapped  in  their  garb,  which  was  held  to  be  a 
sure  passport  to  heaven. 

Although  despising  the  rule  of  the  Cistercians,  as  rude 
and  rough,  and  blaming  the  older  Benedictines  for  their 
pride  and  pomp,  most  of  the  Friars  became  as  anxious 
for  promotion  and  rewards,  and  contrived  to  seize  upon 
rich  posts  in  Church  and  State.  There  was  an  extreme 
party,  known  as  Observants,  who  adhered  for  a  time  to 
the  ancient  rule.  The  full  narration  belongs  to  a  later 
age,  when  Wycliffe  fulminated  against  the  arrogance  and 
corruption  of  the  Mendicants,  as  they  came  to  be 
generally  termed.  Of  the  original  stock,  however,  it  is 
impossible  to  speak  without  respect  and  honour.  Their 
remarkable  growth  was  owing  to  their  high  character 
and  their  noble  services  to  suffering  humanity.  In  their 
purer   days   these  Orders   included   some  great   scholars 


244         THE  PAPACY  AND  THE  FRIARS,    [chap.  xiv. 

and  men  of  genius;  such  as  Albertus  Magnus,  Thomas 
Aquinas,  and  Savonarola,  among  the  Dominicans ;  and 
John  Duns  Scotus,  the  Subtle  Doctor,  Occam,  St.  Bona- 
ventura,  and  Alexander  de  Hales,  the  Irrefragable  Doctor, 
among  the  Franciscans.  Greater  than  all,  is  the  single 
name  of  Roger  Bacon.  Two  centuries  later,  the  renowned 
Cardinal  Ximenes  (1437-15 17),  honourably  associated  with 
the  '  Complutensian  Polyglot,'  was  a  member  of  this 
Order  ;  which  also  gave  five  occupants  of  the  pontifical 
chair.  Before  the  reign  of  Henry  HI.  was  half  over,  the 
Franciscans  exercised  a  predominating  influence  in  Oxford 
University,  under  Adam  de  Marisco,  whose  school  was 
renowned  throughout  Christendom.  If  it  was  less  in 
Cambridge,  it  was  supreme  throughout  European  seats 
of  learning.  They  rivalled,  and  in  many  respects  excelled 
the  Dominicans  ;  exhibiting  a  marked  contrast  to  the 
contempt  of  book-learning  which  St.  Francis  had  always 
displayed.  Thus  they  helped  to  raise  the  intellectual  life 
of  the  time  into  a  higher  region,  and  to  prepare  the  way 
for  subsequent  developments.  The  Franciscans  found 
that  they  could  not  dispense  with  culture ;  as  the 
Dominicans  found  that  they  must  renounce  wealth, 
formally,  at  least,  in  order  to  succeed. 

Such  were  the  new  allies  of  the  Papacy.  They  sought 
to  uphold  and  extend  its  power  to  the  utmost.  In  return 
for  favours  shown,  as  in  the  authoritative  recognition  of 
their  special  work,  and  in  being  free  from  episcopal  con- 
trol— thus  perpetuating  the  mistake  that  had  been  com- 
mitted with  the  earlier  monks — they  were  diligent  and 
earnest  in  preaching  on  behalf  of  the  absolute  supremacy 
of  the  Pope.  His  dues  and  levies  had  greatly  increased, 
and  new  means  were  constantly  being  devised  to  extend 
them,  and  to  bring  into  subordination  not  only  the  clergy 
but  the  laity.  When  a  lucrative  oftice  became  vacant, 
there  was  always  some  dispute.  Thus,  on  the  death  of 
Langton,  in  1228,  the  monks  of  St.  Augustine's  Priory 
at  Canterbury,  asked  the  Pope  to  appoint  one  of  their 
own  number ;  but  he  was  set  aside  for  a  nominee  of 
Rome.  Between  121 5  and  1264  not  fewer  than  thirty 
contested  elections  of  English  bishops  were  carried 
thither  for  decision.  Henry  III.  was  weak  enough  to 
promise   the   Holy   See   one-tenth   of   all   the   moveable 


A.D.  I2i6  -1246.]  NA  TIONAL  LIBERTY  ASSERTED.  245 

property  in  the  Kingdom ;  and  a  Legate  was  sent  to 
collect  it.  The  demand  gave  rise  to  angry  complaints 
and  to  much  resistance.  Some  refused  to  pay;  liice  the 
Earl  of  Chester,  who  said  he  would  hang  any  messenger 
from  the  Legate.  Less  trouble  arose  with  the  clergy ;  for 
the  bishops  and  abbots  were  required  to  advance  the 
money  for  all  within  their  jurisdiction,  with  leave  to 
get  it  back  when  and  how  they  could.  The  first  exaction 
of  the  kind  was  made  in  1228,  and  it  was  repeated  several 
times  in  various  proportions  during  the  next  twenty-five 
years.  The  sale  of  livings  was  also  openly  carried  on. 
The  highest  bidder  for  clerical  office  procured  it,  without 
regard  to  fitness.  The  Popes  claimed  and  used  the  power 
to  supersede  all  persons  of  whom  they  did  not  approve, 
or  whose  obsequiousness  was  doubtful ;  or  who  would 
not  pay  enough.  This  explains  the  attitude  of  the 
English  bishops  and  clergy ;  for  the  liberties  of  the 
Church,  as  well  as  those  of  the  State,  were  endangered 
by  the  encroachments  and  the  cupidity  of  aliens.  The 
wrongs  of  the  nation  were  set  forth  in  a  letter  addressed 
to  Pope  Innocent  IV.  in  1246,  by  the  King,  the  prelates, 
and  the  barons.  Numbers  of  ecclesiastics  were  sent  over 
to  fill  vacancies,  or  these  were  held  in  commetidam  by 
foreigners  who  lived  abroad  and  received  the  revenues. 
No  fewer  than  three  hundred  Italian  priests  arrived  on 
one  occasion,  and  the  Legate  was  told  that  no  benefices 
were  to  be  filled  until  these  had  first  been  provided  for. 
The  amount  thus  alienated  and  sent  out  of  the  country 
every  year  was  said  by  Bishop  Grosseteste  to  be  three 
times  as  much  as  the  Crown  revenues. 

Robert  Grossetete — usually  written  Grosseteste — or 
Greathead,  was  Bishop  of  the  enormous  diocese  of 
Lincoln,  from  1235  to  1253.  He  was  born  at  Stradbrook, 
Suffolk,  in  1 17  5,  and  was  one  of  those  patriotic  English- 
men who  tower  in  magnificent  proportions  above  the 
men  of  their  time,  and  whose  courage  and  fidelity  are 
gratefully  remembered.  Threats  from  Rome  and  moni- 
tions from  Canterbury  fell  harmless  upon  this  noble 
prelate.  Roger  Bacon,  himself  a  Franciscan,  refers  in 
terms  of  warm  appreciation,  as  do  other  distinguished 
contemporaries,  to  some  of  his  writings.  One  of  these, 
'  De  Cessatione  Legal ium,'  served  to  inspire  Sir  John  Eliot 


246         THE  PAPACY  AND  THE  FRIARS,   [chap.  xiv. 

and  the  actors  in  the  Great  RebelHon,  as  it  is  termed. 
Grosseteste  was  skilled  in  all  the  learning  and  science  of 
his  day,  and  wrote  voluminously  upon  a  great  variety  of 
subjects.  Without  depreciating  his  literary  attainments, 
his  fame  chiefly  rests  upon  his  persistent  stand  for  the 
freedom  of  the  English  Church  and  nation,  against  the 
aggressive  policy  of  Rome.  He  strove  to  raise  the 
character  of  his  clergy,  to  uphold  ecclesiastical  dis- 
cipline, and  to  guard  the  national  independence.  He 
welcomed  and  befriended  the  early  Friars,  because  of 
their  zeal  and  devotedness.  In  particular,  he  opposed 
simoniacal  presentations  to  benefices  ;  from  however  high 
a  source.  He  was  equally  opposed  to  the  appointment 
of  unfit  persons  to  offices  by  King  or  nobles.  Pope 
Innocent  IV.  conferred  upon  his  own  nephew  a  rich 
canonry  in  Lincoln  Cathedral.  Grosseteste  wrote  a  sharp 
epistle,  refusing  to  recognise  him.  He  was  one  of  the 
foremost  to  denounce  the  rapacity  of  the  Roman  Curia, 
and  to  resist  the  continuous  illegal  attempts  of  Henry  III. 
to  raise  money.  Simon  de  Montfort  found  in  him  a  trusty 
friend  and  a  sagacious  adviser,  and  made  him  tutor  to 
his  sons.  With  a  fidelity  alike  beautiful  and  rare,  he  did 
not  shrink  from  uttering  words  of  counsel  and  of  caution 
when,  as  he  judged,  the  great  Earl  needed  them. 
Actuated  by  a  high  sense  of  duty,  uncompromising  in 
opposition  to  abuses  in  Church  and  State  ;  diligent  in 
the  discharge  of  Episcopal  functions,  and,  withal,  a 
thorough  Englishman,  he  exerted  vast  influence.  The 
memory  of  such  a  man  never  dies.  It  is  stimulating  to 
meet  with  this  patriot-prelate — a  worthy  compeer  of 
Cardinal  Langton — on  the  arid  plains  of  clerical  corrup- 
tion and  greed  in  the  Middle  Ages.  There  have  always 
been  witnesses  for  righteousness.  This  high-minded 
bishop  was  one  of  the  precursors  of  Wycliffe  ;  though, 
like  Wycliffe,  he  had  no  thought  of  breaking  away  from 
the  Church,  but  only  of  reforming  it.  He  could  not, 
single-handed,  stem  the  evil  tide ;  but  he  would  not 
swim  with  it. 

Besides  the  Papal  and  clerical  exactions  already  set 
forth,  people  were  constantly  urged  to  make  presents  to 
the  Church,  and  to  buy  relics  at  high  prices.  A  lucrative 
trade  was  driven  in   these  articles   for    centuries.     What 


A.D.  I2I6-I246.]       FALSE  CHARITY.  24? 

ever  were  the  faults  of  Henry  III.  as  a  monarch,  he  won 
golden  opinions  from  ecclesiastics.  Towards  them  he 
manifested  lavish  generosity.  Clerical  writers  rarely  saw 
any  fault  in  a  man  who  made  great  gifts  to  their  own 
order.  Many  instances  of  his  munificence  occur  in  the 
Exchequer  Records.  Almsgiving,  feeding  the  hungry, 
clothing  the  naked,  and,  above  all,  the  building  and 
endowment  of  churches  and  monasteries,  were  thought 
to  be  peculiarly  acceptable  to  God.  Patience  and  gentle- 
ness towards  other  men,  whose  opinions  on  religious 
matters  differed,  were  then,  and  for  hundreds  of  years 
after,  quite  unknown.  This  is  clearly  seen  in  the  history 
of  the  long-oppressed  Jews,  whose  tale  of  woe  and  suffer- 
ing, dismal  enough  before,  became  darker  and  sadder. 
Sheriffs  were  ordered  to  see  that  all  Jews  wore  on  their 
upper  garment  two  white  tablets  of  linen  or  of  parch- 
ment. The  order,  though  it  seems  harsh  and  degrading, 
was  probably  made  with  a  view  to  protect  them  from 
assault  and  robbery ;  as  they  were  virtually  the  serfs  of 
the  monarch.  None  could  then  say  they  did  not  know 
a  Jew  when  they  met  him.  By  large  payments  at 
various  times,  these  despised  people  had  bought  a  pre- 
carious kind  of  protection.  In  1223,  the  clergy  expressed 
anger  at  the  countenance  extended  to  the  Jews  by  the 
Government.  The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  the 
Bishop  of  London  ordered  that  no  persons  should  buy 
anything  of  them,  or  sell  them  food,  or  have  any 
dealings  or  speech  with  them.  They  appealed  to  the 
King  for  protection ;  doubtless  with  a  handsome  bribe  ; 
and  directions  were  sent  to  the  Sheriffs  to  prevent  the 
order  from  being  carried  out.  They  were  also  instructed 
to  imprison  all  persons  who  refused  to  sell  provisions  to 
Jews.  Nothing  more  is  said  of  them  in  the  records  of  the 
next  seven  years,  and  it  is  probable  that  they  were  not 
molested.  But  in  1230,  Henry  III.  being  in  urgent  need 
of  money,  demanded  one-third  of  all  their  moveables. 
In  vain  they  remonstrated.  The  royal  necessities  consti- 
tuted unanswerable  logic ;  as  the  Jews  found  to  their  cost. 
Soon  afterwards,  they  had  to  submit  to  another  act  of 
outrageous  wrong.  By  leave  of  the  King,  dearly  pur- 
chased, they  had  built  in  London,  at  great  expense,  a 
synagogue  of  nmch  beauty.     As  soon  as  it  was  finished 


248         THE  PAPACY  AND  THE  FRIARS,   [chap.  xiv. 

he  had  it  seized,  and  gave  it  to  a  company  of  monks  for 
a  church,  in  return  for  a  large  bribe.  Between  the  years 
1230  and  1 27 1  the  taxes  wrung  from  the  Jews  in  England, 
as  entered  in  the  Rolls  of  the  Exchequer,  amounted  to 
one  hundred  and  thirty-eight  thousand  pounds ;  besides 
unspecified  sums  in  several  years,  and  another  third  part 
of  all  their  goods  in  1239.  This  recorded  amount  re- 
presents upwards  of  two  millions  in  modern  value. 
Fuller  says  that  Henry  "  not  only  flayed  the  skin,  but 
raked  the  flesh  and  scarified  the  bone  of  all  the  Jews' 
estates  in  England."  In  vain  did  they  petition  and 
protest.  Their  complaints  were  met  by  increased  rigour. 
They  were  hated  and  oppressed  on  all  hands,  and  chiefly 
by  needy  nobles  and  other  persons  who  were  their 
debtors.  Royal  Ordinances  and  Proclamations  piously 
denounced  the  Hebrews  and  their  practice  of  usury ; 
yet,  from  the  Monarch  downwards,  all  were  eager  to 
borrow,  and  unwilling  to  repay.  No  one  pitied  them. 
One  Ordinance  of  1253  prescribed,  in  terms  of  com- 
prehensive vindictiveness,  that  "no  Jew  shall  remain  in 
England  who  does  not  render  service  to  the  King. 
There  shall  be  no  schools  for  Jews  except  in  places  where 
they  have  been  kept  of  old.  In  their  synagogues,  all 
Jews  shall  pray  in  a  low  voice,  so  that  Christians  may 
not  hear.  Every  Jew  shall  pay  dues  to  the  rector  of  his 
parish.  No  Christian  woman  shall  suckle  or  nurse  the 
child  of  any  Jew,  nor  shall  a  Christian  serve  with  Jews, 
eat  with  them,  or  abide  in  their  houses.  No  Jew  shall 
eat  meat  in  Lent,  or  detract  from  the  Christian  faith,  or 
hinder  another  who  may  be  anxious  to  become  a 
Christian."  Infringement  of  any  of  these  rules  involved 
the  seizure  of  all  their  property.  In  spite  of  this,  their 
wealth  increased ;  for  their  command  of  ready  money, 
here  and  on  the  Continent,  rendered  them  absolutely 
necessary  in  those  impecunious  and  wasteful  days.  They 
were  forbidden  to  hold  real  estate — the  feudal  tenure  of 
land  being  military  service,  from  which  they  were 
exempt — excepting  houses  in  walled  towns  for  their  own 
use.  These  were  always  in  a  separate  quarter,  known  as 
the  Jewry ;  but  crafts  and  trades  then  usually  had  their 
own  quarters.  The  name  is  perpetuated  in  London  and 
elsewhere.     Some  years  later,  in  1290,  after  two  centuries 


A.D.  1 2 1 6- 1 246.]      JE  WS  EXPELLED.  249 

of  persecution,  the  Jews  were  expelled  the  country ;  to 
the  number,  as  was  said,  of  fifteen  thousand.  They 
were  also  banished  from  the  Continental  possessions  of 
Edward  I.  They  made  no  attempt  to  return  until  the 
time  of  the  Commonwealth.  The  assigned  reasons  were 
that  they  cUpped  the  coinage,  and  were  guilty  of  excessive 
usury.  The  true  reasons  may  be  easily  conjectured.  As 
a  matter  of  great  ■  favour,  they  were  permitted  to  take  a 
small  part  of  their  moveables,  and  sufficient  money  to 
defray  the  expenses  of  their  journey  ;  but  their  houses 
and  the  rest  of  their  possessions  were  seized  for  the 
King's  use.  A  minute  inventory  was  made ;  in  every 
line  of  which  their  great  wealth  appears.  Lamps  of 
brass,  rings  of  gold  and  silver,  vases  of  precious  metal, 
jewels,  cloths  and  tapestries  from  famous  Oriental  looms, 
richly  decorated  armour  for  knights ;  jewelled  girdles 
and  costly  dresses  for  ladies,  are  among  the  articles 
enumerated.  The  records  of  the  following  years  contain 
many  grants  of  dwellings  and  property  formerly  belong- 
ing to  the  Jews.  The  cathedral  and  monastic  libraries 
were  enriched  by  valuable  Hebrew  leather  and  vellum 
rolls  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  and  other  ancient 
writings.  They  perpetuated  Hebrew^  and  Oriental 
learning,  and  to  them  Europe  owed  the  transmission 
of  the  works  of  Aristotle,  through  Arabic  translations, 
with  philosophical  and  medical  writings  of  Greece,  the 
originals  of  which  are  long  since  lost. 

The  influence  of  Jewish  learning  and  literature  made 
itself  felt  in  Oxford,  as  in  various  Continental  Universi- 
ties ;  and  it  remained  long  after  the  race  was  expelled 
from  England ;  part  of  that  mysterious,  far-reaching, 
and  permanent  influence  which  has  been  exerted  for  ages 
by  this  wonderful  people.  The  period  now  under  review, 
or,  roughly  speaking,  from  the  middle  of  the  eleventh 
to  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  centuries,  may  be 
regarded  as  the  most  splendid  era  of  Jewish  medieval 
literature,  in  theology,  exegetics,  and  ethics,  in  grammar, 
rhetoric,  and  philosophy,  in  astronomy,  mathematics, 
and  medicine,  in  poetry,  the  science  of  law,  and  history. 
Among  numerous  learned  doctors  who  then  flourished, 
the  most  illustrious,  and  perhaps  the  most  renowned  of 
any  age,   was   Moses   Maimonides   (1135-1204),   born  at 


2  50  KING,  BARONS,  AND  COMMONS,  [chap.  xv. 

Cordova,  but  exiled,  with  his  family,  to  Cairo.  He  has 
long  been  universally  recognised  as  one  of  the  noblest 
men  and  greatest  teachers ;  gifted  with  powerful  and 
brilliant  qualities  of  mind ;  possessed  of  varied  and 
extensive  knowledge ;  imbued  with  deep  piety  and  true 
religion ;  and  sustained  by  undaunted  energy  and 
glowing  zeal.  The  subsequent  relations  of  the  Hebrew 
race  to  politics,  learning,  science,  and  art,  form  a  fruitful 
theme  of  independent  inquiry. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

KING,    BARONS,    AND    COMMONS. 
A.D.  I216-I272. 

The  second  principal  series  of  events  in  the  long  reign  of 
Henry  HI.  was  his  struggle  with  the  barons.  It  forms 
the  theme  of  one  of  Michael  Drayton's  most  effective 
poems.  Several  things  led  to  this  outbreak ;  such  as  the 
encroachments  of  aliens,  the  extravagance  of  the  King, 
his  pecuniary  demands  for  foreign  wars ;  and  his  repeated 
violations  of  Charters,  promises,  and  oaths.  The  connec- 
tions of  the  young  Queen  Eleanor,  whom  he  married  in 
1236,  when  she  was  only  fourteen  years  of  age,  swarmed 
into  England  from  Provence,  from  Poitevin,  and  from 
Savoy ;  eager  to  share  in  the  good  fortune  that  had  come 
to  her,  and  ready  to  take  any  lucrative  offices.  England 
has  always  been  regarded  as  a  Fortunatus'  purse  for 
needy  foreign  princes  and  their  underlings.  Three  of 
the  Queen's  uncles  grasped  the  chief  posts  at  Court, 
and  st(5od  high  in  the  King's  confidence.  Her  brothers, 
sisters,  and  numerous  cousins,  with  their  friends  and 
servants,  came  over  in  troops,  and  all  were  provided 
for,  at  the  expense  of  the  English ;  to  the  great  anger 
and  disgust  of  the  latter.  The  stream  set  in  with  the 
royal  wedding,  and  it  continued  uninterruptedly  for 
more  than  twenty  years.  Between  their  greed  and  that 
o(  the  many  foreign  priests,  the  land  was  plundered  and 
impoverished.     The  Queen  also  brought  over  a  numbei 


A.D.  I2I6-I272.]  HENRY'S  EXTRAVAGANCE.  251 

of  damsels  of  noble  birth,  but  with  empty  purses,  who 
were  provided  with  husbands  from  among  the  rich  young 
English  barons  of  whom  the  King  was  feudal  guardian. 
Matthew  Paris  observes  that  in  1256,  "the  King's  Poi- 
tevin  brothers,  the  Provencals,  and  now  the  Spaniards 
and  the  Romans  are  enriched  with  daily  augmenting 
wealth,  and  elevated  to  honours,  while  the  English  are 
discarded." 

The  political  songs  of  the  day  abound  in  satires  and 
lampoons  on  these  grasping  foreigners.  The  Records  of 
the  Exchequer  between  1236  and  1258  contain  numerous 
entries  of  sums  paid  by  order  of  the  King  for  the  support 
of  and  for  gifts  to  his  wife's  relatives  and  their  needy 
followers.  A  sixth  of  the  royal  revenue  was  said  to  be 
absorbed  by  these  leeches.  Yet,  all  this  time,  Henry  was 
in  great  straits  for  money ;  his  treasury  being  emptied 
by  the  cost  of  his  wars  in  Guienne,  by  his  efforts  to 
place  his  second  son,  Edmund,  on  the  throne  of  Sicily, 
which  Pope  Alexander  IV.  pretended  to  confer  in  1254, 
and  by  repeated  refusals  of  the  barons  and  clergy  to  pay 
taxes  while  their  just  complaints  were  unheeded.  Eleanor 
was  unpopular  in  London,  because  of  attempts  made  to 
compel  vessels  to  be  unladen  at  the  quay  known  as 
Queenhithe ;  the  money  paid  for  dues  being  part  of  the 
private  income  arbitrarily  assigned  by  her  husband. 
Another  grievance  was  the  revival  of  an  ancient  custom 
of  paying  what  was  termed  Queen's  Gold.  In  the  time 
of  William  I.  when  any  sum  owing  to  the  King  was 
paid,  it  was  usual,  as  a  matter  of  courtesy,  to  make  some 
gilt  to  the  Queen.  Slowly  this  came  to  be  regarded  as  a 
right,  and  a  fixed  amount  was  demanded.  In  1254,  and 
in  the  next  year,  the  Sheriffs  of  London  were  detained 
by  the  marshals  of  the  Court  for  arrears  of  this  impost 
claimed  from  the  citizens.  To  such  a  pitch  was  the 
public  ill-will  excited  against  the  Queen,  that  when,  in 
1263,  she  left  the  Tower  of  London  to  join  her  son 
Edward  at  Windsor,  the  barge  in  which  she  and  her 
ladies  were  being  rowed  was  assailed  with  great  stones 
by  a  mob  on  London  Bridge,  with  cries  of  "  Drown  the 
witch  ! "  and  it  was  with  difficulty  that  the  rowers  got 
back  to  the  Tower. 

Henry's  personal   extravagance,   and   his   incessant   de- 


2  52  KING,  BARONS,  AND  COMMONS,  [chap.  XV. 

mancls  of  money  for  foreign  wars,  kept  him  poor,  and 
involved  him  in  grave  difficulties.  His  vice  of  prodi- 
gality proved,  in  the  end,  useful  to  the  country.  In 
1231,  the  Great  Council  refused  an  Aid  for  the  war  with 
France.  When  he  pleaded  poverty,  the  Earl  of  Chester 
bluntly  told  him  that  they  suffered  as  much  as  he  did 
from  his  waste.  In  1233,  driven  by  necessity,  he  made 
two  attempts  to  convene  a  Great  Council.  In  both 
instances  his  summonses  were  disregarded.  One  was 
held  in  April,  1234,  when  an  Aid  was  granted;  only 
after  the  hated  foreigners  had  been  banished  across  the 
sea,  and  on  solemn  pledges  of  better  rule  on  the  part  of 
Henry.  The  parasites  soon  came  back,  however ;  and 
when,  in  1237,  another  Aid  was  asked,  Henry  pleading 
that  he  had  spent  much  money  on  his  sister's  marriage 
with  the  Emperor,  and  on  his  own,  the  stout  Earl  of 
Chester  again  replied,  as  spokesman  for  the  barons,  that 
their  advice  had  not  been  taken,  and  that  they  ought 
not  to  suffer  for  acts  which  they  had  not  done.  Once 
more,  in  1241,  an  Aid  was  asked  for  the  war  in  Poitou. 
The  barons  drew  up  a  remonstrance,  reciting  all  the 
grants  made  in  recent  years,  and  how  the  money  had 
been  wasted ;  and  refused  to  give  any  more.  Again  and 
again  did  such  disputes  arise  during  this  reign.  Aids 
were  asked,  but  were  withheld  until  wrongs  were  re- 
dressed. When  the  royal  purse  was  filled,  royal  promises 
were  forgotten  or  broken ;  until  wants  again  arose  and 
clamoured  for  satisfaction.  Then  fresh  Aids  were  grudg- 
ingly conceded,  but  with  new  restrictions  and  safeguards 
to  liberty.  The  King  still  had  certain  means  of  raising 
money,  apart  from  the  Great  Council  ;  although  not  to 
an  extent  sufficient  to  meet  his  necessities.  He  could 
not,  it  is  true,  levy  taxes  on  the  whole  nation  at  his  own 
will.  There  was  a  clear  distinction  between  Aids  or 
Subsidies,  which  could  only  be  granted  by  consent  of  ■ 
the  Great  Council,  and  Tallages,  which  the  King,  by 
virtue  of  feudal  customs,  could  demand  from  all  who 
lived  upon  the  royal  property,  or  from  towns  having 
a  charter.  Large  sums  were  raised  by  this  means, 
especially  from  the  citizens  of  London,  York,  Norwich, 
Gloucester,  Bristol,  and  other  places  ;  but  payment  was 
exacted   with   difficulty,    and   gave   rise   to   much    ill  will 


A.D.  1216-1272.]  ARBITRARY  LEVIES.  253 

against  the  King.  Madox,  in  his  '  History  of  the 
Exchequer,'  furnishes  copious  instances  of  such  flagrant 
robberies  under  pretence  of  law. 

In  addition,  the  old  custom  was  perpetuated,  of  rich 
bishoprics  and  livings  being  kept  vacant  for  years ;  the 
income  accruing  to  the  King.  Practices  like  those 
already  described  among  the  causes  which  led  to  John 
being  forced  to  yield  the  Great  Charter,  were  repeatedly 
adopted  by  his  son.  The  Fine  Rolls  contain  long  lists 
of  moneys  paid  to  him  from  all  parts,  on  matters  relating 
to  deaths  and  heirships  ;  division  of  property  ;  custody  of 
lands  ;  marriage  of  heiresses  and  widows  ;  forfeitures  ; 
pardons ;  exemptions  from  knighthood  and  from  en- 
gaging in  royal  expeditions  abroad  \  fairs  and  markets  ; 
leave  to  trade  and  to  hold  or  quit  offices  ;  purchase  of 
the  King's  favour  or  help ;  and  remissions  of  his  dis- 
pleasure. In  these  ways  there  was,  as  there  continued 
to  be  for  a  lengthened  period,  universal  and  irritating 
meddling  with  life,  property,  and  liberty.  Hundreds  of 
such  entries  occur  in  the  official  records ;  the  dates, 
names,  places,  amounts,  and  circumstances  being  mi- 
nutely specified.  The  fines  were  arbitrary,  and  some- 
times were  ruinous.  Justice  was  sold  to  the  highest 
bidder.  Royal  officers  were  sent  through  the  country, 
not  to  punish  offenders,  but  to  compound  for  transgres- 
sions by  receiving  fines  as  the  price  of  pardon.  The 
ancient  feudal  rights  of  the  Crown  were  enforced  with  a 
strictness  that  became  extortion.  Infringements  of  the 
Forest  Laws  were  made  the  pretexts  for  heavy  mulcts. 
Rights  vested  in  the  Crown  for  the  public  good  were 
used  as  machinery  for  exacting  money  tor  personal  ends. 
Official  nepotism  and  arbitrariness  were  winked  at  for 
payment,  and  the  whole  system  of  government  was  used 
to  fill  the  Exchequer ;  which  was  virtually  the  royal 
Privy  Purse. 

Henry's  repeated  violations  of  promises  and  oaths 
formed  another  ground  of  complaint.  In  1223,  the 
Great  Council  demanded  a  Confirmation  of  the  Charters. 
This  was  promised  ;  twelve  knights  being  appointed  in 
each  county  to  inquire  what  were  the  rights  of  the  King 
and  the  liberties  of  subjects,  according  to  ancient  usage. 
At  this  time,  Henry  was   only   seventeen   years   of  age, 


254  KING,  BARONS,  AND  COMMONS,  [chap.  xv. 

find  the  high  officers  of  State  spoke  and  acted  for  him, 
as  Pembroke  had  done  seven  years  before.  Down  to  the 
close  of  his  reign  the  subject  of  the  Charters  was  in  con- 
stant disiHite.  The  Great  Charter  of  John  was  solemnly 
ratified  during  that  time  on  five  separate  occasions, 
besides  the  one  in  his  minority  ;  after  as  many  periods 
of  flagrant  violation.  It  was  always  appealed  to  as  a 
record  of  old  rights,  privileges,  immunities,  and  customs. 
It  was  fenced  round  and  made  stronger  by  these  repeated 
Confirmations  ;  usually  purchased  by  the  grant  of  a 
Subsidy.  Owing  to  the  difficulty  of  compelling  the 
King  to  observe  the  law,  it  was  sought,  after  the  futile 
custom  of  that  day,  to  bind  his  conscience  by  the  sanc- 
tions and  threats  of  religion.  Excommunication  was 
denounced  against  all  who  broke  the  laws  set  forth  in 
the  Great  Charter.  Though  Henry  several  times  swore 
to  observe  it,  and  though  he  was  devout  after  a  fashion, 
he  had  his  own  notions  about  the  force  of  an  oath  that 
touched  the  regal  power.  According  to  the  belief  of  that 
age,  the  Pope  could  set  aside  any  oath,  and  the  usual  prac- 
tice was  to  do  so  for  a  sufficient  pecuniary  consideration, 
or  for  reasons  of  policy.  Henry  was  generally  on  such 
terms  with  Rome  as  to  procure  the  indulgence. 

When  the  Great  Charter  was  ratified  in  1223, 
another  Charter  of  Forests  was  also  granted.  The 
object  was,  by  renewing  and  extending  earlier  docu- 
ments, to  guard  ancient  privileges  connected  with  the 
chase,  and  to  redress  grievances  arising  out  of  the  atro- 
cious Norman  game-laws.  It  is  needful  to  remember 
that,  as  in  earlier  times,  most  of  the  country  was  covered 
with  wood ;  parts  of  which  had  been  cleared  and  tilled. 
William  I.,  as  has  been  already  told,  dealt  harshly  and 
unjustly ;  increasing  the  extent  of  the  royal  forests, 
and  brutally  punishing  all  offences  against  his  arbitrary 
regulations.  His  sons  and  successors  followed  his  example. 
For  more  than  a  hundred  years  there  had  been  cease- 
less complaints  and  much  ill-feeling,  which  the  various 
Charters  of  the  Forest  were  intended  to  remedy.  The 
domains  were  now  ordered  to  be  cut  down  to  the  old 
boundaries.  The  powers  of  the  Forest  Courts  were 
lessened,  and  checks  imposed  on  the  officials.  Free 
tenants   of  lands   adjoining   were   to   have    access,    with 


A.D.  1216-1272.]  POWER  OF  THE  PURSE.  255 

leave  to  erect  mills,  to  dig  marl  for  manure,  to  make 
ditches,  to  retain  honey,  and  to  turn  their  own  woods 
into  farms ;  all  of  which  had  been  forbidden  prior  to 
1223.  The  punishment  for  taking  deer  was  no  longer  to 
be  hanging  to  the  nearest  tree,  or  the  cutting  off  of  a 
hand  or  a  foot,  or  loss  of  sight ;  but  fine  or  imprisonment 
after  due  trial  and  conviction. 

From  the  above  statements  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
granting  of  public  taxes  was  contingent,  in  some  defined 
measure,  even  at  that  time,  upon  the  observance  of 
promises  to  keep  the  laws,  and  upon  the  redress  of 
grievances.  Henry  III.  once  more  confirmed  the 
Charters  in  1237,  and  the  prelates,  clergy,  earls,  barons, 
knights,  and  freemen  granted  one-thirtieth  of  their 
moveables,  in  return.  This  was  a  distinct  mutual 
compact ;  but  he  failed  to  keep  it.  The  next  year,  after 
long  debate,  he  swore  to  be  guided  by  the  advice  of 
"certain  gravemen " ;  but  again  broke  his  word.  In 
1240,  the  bishops  exhibited  thirty  Articles,  setting  forth 
his  violations  of  the  Great  Charter.  Once  more  he 
promised  to  amend;  in  return  for  money.  In  1242,  at  a 
Great  Council  held  in  London,  his  demand  of  an  Aid 
towards  the  expenses  of  a  war  with  France  was  refused, 
and  a  written  protest  was  handed  to  him  against  recent 
iilegal  procedure  on  his  part.  In  January,  1244,  a 
Committee  was  appointed  by  all  the  magnates  to  draw  up 
Articles  for  regulating  his  conduct  and  for  the  naming  of 
his  advisers.  In  the  following  month,  he  promised  to 
observe  what  he  had  sworn  to  at  his  coronation  ;  and 
thereupon  received  from  every  one  that  held  by  barony  a 
Scutage  of  twenty  shillings  on  the  marriage  of  his  eldest 
daughter.  In  November  of  that  year,  an  Aid  against 
the  Welsh  was  refused  until  he  yielded  to  a  demand  of 
the  Great  Council,  that  four  of  their  number  should  take 
charge  of  the  money  in  one  of  the  royal  castles,  so  as 
to  ensure  its  proper  disbursement.  In  1248,  the  nobility 
and  prelates  of  England  assembled  in  the  Great  Council, 
after  protracted  and  excited  deliberations  on  the  state  of 
the  Kingdom,  drew  up  another  long  list  of  grievances  ; 
refusing  an  Aid  until  these  were  corrected.  This 
happened  a  second  time  during  that  year.  In  1249,  the 
Great  Council  insisted  on  the  Chancellor,  the  Treasurer, 


256  KING,  BARONS,  AND  COMMONS,  [chap.  xv. 

and  the  Chief  Justice  being  appointed  by  their  advice, 
so  as  to  prevent  favouritism  and  incompetency. 

Similar  struggles  took  place  in  the  later  years  of  this 
reign.  One  notable  gathering  was  held  on  May  4,  1253, 
at  Westminster,  summoned  on  finding  that  all  the  violent 
and  illegal  methods  used  to  raise  money  could  not  supply 
his  wants.  In  order  to  prevent  their  customary  re- 
proaches, and  to  win  their  consent,  he  owned  his  former 
errors,  and  declared  that  he  would  govern  in  future 
according  to  their  wishes,  and  would  again  confirm  the 
Charters  in  any  way  they  pleased.  Although  the  nobles 
and  clergy  mistrusted  his  sincerity,  as  there  was  abundant 
reason  to  do,  they  agreed  once  more  to  take  him  at  his 
word,  to  give  him  another  trial,  and  to  grant  an  Aid. 
The  customary  oaths  were  exacted ;  this  time  under 
circumstances  supposed  to  be  of  special  solemnity,  and 
therefore  peculiarly  binding.  In  the  great  hall  at  West- 
minster, in  the  midst  of  the  barons  and  prelates,  the 
latter  holding  lighted  tapers  in  their  hands,  the  Great 
Charter  and  the  Charter  of  the  Forests  were  read  aloud. 
Then  was  pronounced  a  sentence  of  excommunication, 
with  fearful  curses  and  threats  of  Divine  wrath,  against 
all  who  violated  them  in  any  particular.  The  prelates 
threw  their  tapers  on  the  ground,  crying — "  So  may 
every  one  be  extinguished  and  stink  in  hell,  who  shall 
incur  this  sentence." 

Notwithstanding  the  agreements  exacted  in  the  midst 
of  these  histrionic  performances,  Henry  pursued  his  own 
course ;  making  fresh  promises  when  money  was  needed, 
and  breaking  them  as  soon  as  it  was  given.  Not,  how- 
ever, until  this  state  of  things  had  lasted  in  all  for  up- 
wards of  a  quarter  of  a  century,  did  an  open  quarrel  break 
out  between  the  nobles  and  the  King.  Extortion,  faith- 
lessness, craft,  improvidence,  misrule  at  home  and  abroad, 
compelled  them  to  devise  an  effectual  remedy.  Every 
class  in  the  community  had  been  wronged,  oppressed, 
and  insulted.  The  time  had  fully  come  to  seek  redress. 
As  usual,  the  man  appeared  when  the  hour  struck.  A 
leader  for  the  movement  was  found  in  Simon  de  Montfort, 
Earl  of  Leicester  (i  206-1 265).  An  alien  by  birth, 
though  possessing  large  English  property  through  his 
mother,  he  had  married  Henry's  sister,  widow  of  the  late 


A.D.  I2I6-I272.]   SIMON DE  MONTFORT.  257 

Protector  Pembroke,  and  had  been  advanced  to  the 
highest  offices  and  honours.  It  seems  to  have  been  a 
part  of  a  concerted  plan  to  secure  the  adhesion  of 
powerful  nobles  in  this  manner ;  just  as  some  of  the 
wealthiest  bishoprics  were  conferred  upon  the  relatives 
of  the  King  and  Queen.  De  Montfort's  family  connec- 
tion did  not  help  Henry  III.  in  his  absolutist  views. 
At  first,  the  Earl  was  suspected  and  disliked  in  the 
country,  being  a  foreigner;  but  he  became  so  popular 
than  he  was  usually  styled  the  Good  Earl  Simon.  Soon 
after  his  settlement  in  England  he  joined  the  party  of 
barons  who  opposed  the  King.  His  name  stands  second 
among  the  signatures  to  the  bold  remonstrance  of  1246 
against  Papal  extortions. 

It  may  have  been  from  dread  of  him,  and  as  a  stroke 
of  policy,  that  Henry  appointed  him  to  the  government 
of  Guienne  ;  the  sole  remaining  Continental  province  of 
England.  While  absent  there  for  four  years,  he  was  not 
unconcerned  in  the  struggle  at  home.  On  his  return,  he 
was  prepared  to  take  the  position  of  leader  in  what  was 
substantially  a  movement  of  national  resistance.  It 
cannot  be  denied  that  the  measures  were  unusual,  and 
even  extreme.  They  amounted  to  what  legal  pedants 
call  a  rebellion.  But  they  were  needed  to  control  so 
wasteful,  and  unwise,  and  untruthful  a  sovereign.  Such 
a  wilful  liar  and  shameless  perjurer  has  rarely  existed. 
On  several  occasions  he  was  openly  charged  with  tergiver- 
sation and  treachery,  and  could  not  deny  it.  He  lied  on 
system,  and  without  scruple.  Happily,  the  nobles  of 
England  saw  nothing  wrong,  whatever  later  sycophants 
may  allege  about  Divine  Right,  in  trying  to  lessen  the 
power  of  a  monarch  who  had  misused  it,  and  had  so 
often  broken  his  word,  and  even  his  most  solemn  vows, 
that  it  would  have  been  folly  to  trust  him  without 
adequate  and  stringent  safeguards.  Out  of  all  this  came 
good  for  the  future  of  the  country.  Apart  from  the 
struggles  among  the  barons,  and  between  them  and 
Henry,  there  were  the  claims  and  the  interests  of  the 
people  at  large.  Not  at  once,  or  willingly,  were  these 
admitted  ;  but  right  was  done  in  due  season. 

On    June    11,    1258,    there    was    held    at    Oxford,    the 
famous  assembly  to  which  for  the  first  time  was  formally 
19 


2S8  KING,  BARONS,  AND  COMMONS,  [chap.  xv. 

given  the  name  of  Parliament ;  derived  from  the  French 
verb,  parler,  "  to  speak."  By  some  Chroniclers,  it  is 
termed  inappropriately  enough,  the  Mad  Parliament. 
The  immediate  occasion  was  the  necessity  for  replenishing 
the  Exchequer,  which  had  been  depleted  by  the  extrava- 
gant and  wasteful  course  of  policy  during  more  than 
twenty  years.  The  barons  attended  armed,  with  a 
large  body  of  followers,  and  Henry  found  himself 
virtually  their  prisoner.  It  was  stated  that  all  Confirma- 
tions of  the  Great  Charter  having  been  "  defeated  by 
evil  advisers " — this  euphemism  was  understood  by 
everybody — no  plan  would  henceforth  suffice  which  did 
not  place  the  affairs  of  the  kingdom  in  the  hands  of  men 
who  could  be  trusted.  A  long  list  of  complaints  and 
grievances  was  drawn  up,  and  petitions  for  redress  were 
presented.  It  was  resolved,  evidently  on  the  precedent 
set  at  Runnymede,  that  twenty-four  barons  should  be 
chosen,  half  by  the  King  and  half  by  the  Great  Council, 
to  inquire  into  grievances,  to  reform  the  administration, 
and  to  be  apprised  of  all  breaches  of  law  and  justice. 
This  information  was  to  be  obtained  from  four  knights 
chosen  by  each  county.  The  committee  of  barons  was 
to  be  subject  to  a  Great  Council  or  Parliament,  meeting 
thrice  every  year  ;  and  it  was  provided  that  "  the 
Commonalty  shall  elect  twelve  honest  men,  who  shall 
come  to  the  Parliaments,  and  at  other  times  w'hen 
occasion  shall  be,  when  the  King  and  his  Council  shall 
send  for  them,  to  treat  of  the  wants  of  the  King  and  of 
his  kingdom.  And  the  Commonalty  shall  hold  as 
established  that  which  these  twelve  shall  do."  With 
this  exception,  an  authority  practically  oligarchical  was 
conferred  upon  the  twenty-four  barons,  who  constituted, 
in  effect,  a  Commission  of  Regency. 

Their  first  act  was  to  form  a  Council  of  fifteen 
members  for  the  King ;  chiefly  taken  from  their  own 
party.  They  drew  up  a  number  of  rules  and  orders  ; 
known  as  the  Provisions  of  Oxford  ;  prescribing,  among 
other  things,  that  the  Charters  should  be  yet  once  again 
confirmed  ;  that  the  great  officers  should  be  nominated 
by  the  barons ;  that  they  should  have  the  keeping  of  the 
royal  castles  ;  that  no  royal  wards  should  be  given  to 
the  care  of  foreigners,  all   of  whom  were   to  be  at  •  once 


A.D.  I2I6-I272.]  COMMITTEE  OF  BARONS.  259 

removed  from  places  of  trust ;  that  sheriffs  should  be 
nominated  by  the  county-courts  for  one  year  only ;  that 
no  new  forests  should  be  created,  and  that  the  King,  his 
son,  his  brother,  the  prelates  and  great  barons  should 
swear  fidelity  to  these  Provisions.  It  is  significant, 
however,  that  no  proposal  seems  to  have  been  made  to 
restore  the  missing  Articles  of  the  Great  Charter,  whereby 
taxation  without  the  consent  of  the  Great  Council  was 
forbidden.  That  was  to  come  in  time.  The  Royal 
Proclamation  for  the  observance  of  these  Provisions  was 
in  English ;  the  first  known  instance  of  its  use  for  the 
purpose.  In  the  following  year,  another  set  of  Ordi- 
nances was  adopted  ;  known  as  the  Provisions  of  West- 
minster. These  gave  protection  to  tenants  against  their 
feudal  lords,  and  made  temporary  arrangements  for  the 
enforcement  of  justice.  The  logical  outcome  of  the 
Provisions  of  Oxford,  though  frustrated  for  a  time,  was 
to  be  the  regular  establishment  of  Parliamentary  repre- 
sentation and  control ;  of  a  popular  and  responsible 
Ministry ;  of  the  principle  of  local  self-government ;  and 
of  all  that  is  included  in  the  modern  constitutional 
system. 

The  five  following  years  were  troublous  and  stormy. 
The  events  that  transpired  are  comparable  in  importance 
to  what  is  termed,  in  preposterous  phrase,  the  Great 
Rebellion  of  the  seventeenth  century,  or  to  the  American 
Revolution  of  the  eighteenth.  Out  of  conflicting  state- 
ments, written  partly  at  the  time  but  chiefly  at  a  later 
day,  it  is  hard  to  unravel  the  thread  of  truth.  Strife 
broke  out  among  the  barons ;  particularly  between  the 
two  powerful  Earls  of  Leicester  and  Gloucester.  Some 
were  charged  with  caring  only  for  their  own  interests,  to 
the  neglect  of  those  of  the  body  at  large.  Henry  became 
a  mere  puppet  in  the  hands  of  the  dominant  nobles.  His 
eldest  son,  the  Lord  Edward,  as  he  was  designated — for  the 
petty  German  title  of  Prince  was  not  invented— at 
first  opposed  them ;  then  sided  with  them  ;  and,  finally, 
deserted  their  cause.  During  these  five  years,  the  country 
was  much  disturbed.  The  King  once  more  sought  from 
the  Pope,  and  obtained,  freedom  from  his  oath.  He  was 
so  imprudent  as  to  boast  of  this  ;  thereby  arousing  sus- 
picion and  alarm  among  the  barons,  and  causing  them  to 


26o  KING,  BARONS,  AND  COMMONS,    [chap.  xv. 

lay  aside  their  differences  for  a  time.  Then  follows  in 
the  Chronicles  a  sad  and  wearisome  account  of  appeals, 
orders,  and  threats  on  both  sides ;  of  castles  provisioned 
and  of  warlike  preparations ;  of  sheriffs  and  other  officers 
appointed  by  the  King  but  disowned  by  the  barons,  and 
of  others  named  by  them  but  denounced  by  him  ;  of 
treaties  made  and  broken  ;  and  of  summary  vengeance 
threatened  against  foreign  favourites,  who  judged  it 
expedient  to  leave  the  country.  The  questions  in  dis- 
pute were  referred  to  Louis  IX.  of  France,  who  decided, 
on  the  whole,  in  favour  of  Henry.  The  barons  would  not 
abide  by  this  award.  They  said  that,  however  suited  to 
French  rule  and  customs,  it  was  unjust  to  England  and 
self-contradictory.  They  formally  renounced  their 
allegiance,  and  each  side  prepared  for  a  conflict.  The 
citizens  of  London  joined  with  Leicester  and  his  party. 
Henry  called  to  his  aid  all  the  tenants  of  the  Crown. 
With  these,  and  such  foreign  troops  as  were  in  his  pay, 
he  withdrew  to  the  neighbourhood  of  Lewes,  in  Sussex, 
hoping  to  receive  fu:ther  reinforcements  from  abroad. 
He  was  followed  by  the  baronial  army,  which,  though 
smaller  than  his  own,  forced  the  decisive  Battle  of  Lewes 
on  May  14,  1264.  At  the  outset,  the  Lord  Edward,  who 
commanded  the  van  of  the  royal  army,  made  so  furious 
an  attack  that  he  routed  the  body  opposed  to  him. 
Following  up  the  pursuit  with  too  much  ardour,  his 
troops  became  scattered.  Meanwhile,  Leicester  conducted 
his  force  against  the  main  body,  and  defeated  it  with 
great  slaughter ;  the  King  and  his  brother  being  among 
the  numerous  prisoners.  A  treaty,  known  as  the  Mise  of 
Lewes,  was  made,  by  which  it  was  agreed  that  the 
Provisions  of  Oxford  should  be  carried  out,  and  that  the 
Lord  Edward  and  his  cousin  should  remain  as  hostages 
in  the  hands  of  the  barons.  After  this,  Henry  was 
wholly  in  their  power.  They  treated  him  with  respect; 
issued  writs  and  executed  justice  in  his  name ;  but  his 
real  authority  had  vanished,  and  the  functions  of  govern- 
ment were  carried  on  by  others  during  the  eight  remain- 
ing years  of  his  life ;  chiefly  by  his  son. 

Numerous  poems  and  songs  of  the  time  extol  the 
conduct  of  Montfort  and  his  associates,  and  set  forth 
constitutional   doctrines    of    which    no   true    Englishman 


A.D.  12 1 6-1 272.]  POEMS  OF  THE  TIME.  261 

is  ashamed.  These  poems  were  recited  up  and  down 
the  country,  and  moulded  the  opinions  of  the  people  in 
an  age  when  newspapers  and  pubUc  meetings  were  un- 
known. They  are  to  be  found  in  the  '  Political  Songs ' 
edited  by  Mr.  Thomas  Wright  for  the  Camden  Society. 
In  one  of  them,  in  particular,  written  soon  after  the 
Battle  of  Lewes,  the  principles  are  clearly  enunciated  that 
the  King  derives  his  authority  from  the  people,  and 
holds  it  for  the  public  welfare ;  and  that  he  is  under 
control  and  is  responsible  for  his  actions.  Patriots  in 
every  age  have  employed  similar  language.  It  is  the 
highest  and  noblest  assertion  of  an  ancient  constitutional 
right  that  is  absolutely  unimpugnable,  and,  in  the  end, 
it  always  wins  the  day.  Temporary  disasters  followed 
upon  the  successes  of  the  barons,  who  were  but  men, 
and  were  divided  in  their  aims.  Yet  none  of  the  sub- 
stantial advantages  gained  by  them  have  ever  been  lost. 
In  order  to  determine  various  matters,  and  especially 
to  settle  a  scheme  of  administrative  control,  writs  were 
issued  in  the  King's  name  for  another  assembly,  which 
met  on  June  23,  1264.  Besides  the  barons  and  the  pre- 
lates, four  knights  were  to  be  elected  by  and  for  each 
county.  The  principles  laid  down  in  the  Mise  of  Lewes 
were  discussed  and  confirmed,  and  a  scheme  of  govern- 
ment was  settled.  Three  persons  were  chosen,  to  elect 
nine  councillors,  by  whose  advice — three  being  always  in 
turn  at  Court — the  King  was  to  transact  all  business  of 
State.  Authority  and  control  were  vested  in  those  who 
possessed  the  real  power.  The  details  of  the  scheme,  if 
ever  settled,  are  unknown.  Owing  to  adverse  circum- 
stances it  fell  through  before  it  came  into  working  order. 
Yet  its  influence  was  permanent.  Another  great  principle 
was  established,  in  the  extension  of  the  franchise  when 
the  next  Parliament  was  convened  for  January  20,  1265. 
Important  as  this  is  in  constitutional  history,  as  forming 
one  of  the  chief  landmarks,  the  assembly,  like  the  one 
in  the  preceding  June,  was,  in  fact,  nothing  more  than  a 
gathering  of  the  supporters  of  the  existing  administra- 
tion. Nor  was  any  other  course  practicable.  The  men 
who  had  fled  the  kingdom,  and  were  only  waiting  for  an 
opportunity  to  invade  it,  of  course  were  not  summoned 
Only    five    earls    and    eighteen    barons    are    mentioned 


262  KING,  BARONS,  AND  COMMONS,  [chap.  xv. 

The  clergy  were  amply  represented.  There  were  also 
the  four  knights  from  each  shire. 

But  there  was  another  body,  of  far  greater  importance  : 
as  subsequent  events  proved.  This  gathering  is  of  the 
highest  interest  as  being  the  first — excepting  the  some- 
what vague  reference  to  the  "  twelve  honest  men  "  in  the 
Parliament  of  i2  58^to  which  representatives  were  sum- 
moned from  certain  cities  and  boroughs ;  the  precise 
number  being  unrecorded.  These  elected  persons  took 
their  places  with  the  knights  of  the  shires,  who  appear  to 
have  sat  first  in  the  Great  Council  in  the  time  of  John, 
but  only  with  regularity  since  1254,  as  the  chosen  of  the 
freeholders.  At  first,  and  probably  until  1295,  they  were 
regarded  merely  as  local  deputies  to  assess  taxation.  It 
was  the  earliest  recognition  of  the  fundamental  principle 
of  political  freedom,  that  taxation  and  repi'esentation 
must  go  together.  Ere  long,  as  detailed  in  the  seven- 
teenth and  twenty-fourth  Chapters,  this  little  germ  be- 
came a  mighty  tree.  By  this  unobtrusive  revolution 
the  whole  of  the  rural  freeholders  were  gradually 
admitted  to  a  share  in  the  government,  through  their 
representatives,  chosen  in  the  Shiremote  or  County- 
Court.  That  ancient  local  jurisdiction  was  familiar  to 
the  people.  Under  its  educating  influence  they  had  been 
gradually  prepared  to  exercise  the  larger  franchise  apper- 
taining to  the  whole  kingdom,  which  the  stress  of  cir- 
cumstances now  demanded.  Thus  it  is  from  an  English 
root  that  the  House  of  Commons  sprung ;  and  that  root 
is  the  county-court.  Whether  the  Earl  of  Leicester  was 
the  actual  author  of  the  measure  for  admitting  burgesses 
to  Parliament,  and  whether  with  the  prescience  of  true 
statesmanship  he  foresaw  its  full  meaning,  and  intended 
to  bring  in  a  new  element  of  power,  it  is  impossible  to 
say.  He  had  certainly  been  familiar  during  his  governor- 
ship of  Guienne  with  a  form  of  representation  existing  in 
the  fortified  towns  of  Aragon,  whose  deputies  became  an 
important  power  in  that  State. 

These  men  of  ancient  families,  like  those  who  took  the 
lead  in  resisting  King  John,  foreign  in  their  origin,  but 
wedded  to  England  by  strong  ties  of  self-interest,  saw 
themselves  in  danger  of  being  set  aside  for  other  foreigners, 
recently   arrived.     They   turned,    as    Norman   kings   had 


A.D.  1216-1272.]  HOUSE  OF  COMMONS.  263 

seen  it  to  be  their  interest  to  turn,  to  the  burgesses  of  the 
cities  and  towns,  and  sought  their  aid.  The  example 
thus  set,  although  not  fully  carried  out  for  thirty  years, 
was  of  great  value.  The  power  given  to  the  rising 
middle  class  was  never  withdrawn.  The  future  House  of 
Commons,  with  all  its  vast  and  far-reaching  influence, 
was  being  slowly  evolved  out  of  the  troubles  and  diffi- 
culties of  that  period.  The  precise  day  or  the  mode  of 
great  constitutional  changes  cannot  be  fixed.  There  has 
been  much  learned  and  laboured  controversy  as  to  the 
rise  of  the  House  of  Commons ;  but,  in  fact,  it  began 
under  the  pressure  of  circumstances,  although  earlier 
events  had  been  leading  on  to  it  and  preparing  the  way. 
It  slowly  adapted  itself  to  growing  national  wants,  and 
gradually  acquired  power  and  influence.  The  English 
Witan,  or  Meeting  of  the  Wise  Men,  developed  into  the 
Great  Council,  and  this,  in  turn,  into  the  Parliament, 
without  actual  identity  or  close  similarity  of  methods, 
but  there  was  no  "solution  of  continuity."  The  chief 
distinction  was  that  this  became  a  truly  representative 
body,  which  the  two  former  were  not.  In  the  Norman 
Council,  as  in  the  earlier  English  assembly,  questions 
relating  to  the  royal  succession,  to  appointments  to 
earldoms  and  bishoprics,  to  foreign  policy,  to  declara- 
tions of  war  and  to  treaties  of  peace  and  alliance,  were 
all  discussed  and  settled.  Taxes  were  imposed  by  the 
advice  and  consent  of  what  was  really,  though  in  an 
inchoate  form,  a  deliberative  body  acting  for  the  nation. 
Gradually,  in  the  course  of  centuries,  and  under  the 
pressure  of  events,  a  custom  was  formed  of  summoning 
particular  members  from  the  prelates,  the  earls,  and  the 
barons,  besides  the  body  of  the  royal  tenants-in-chief. 
In  this  way,  a  rough  distinction  prevailed,  which,  long 
afterwards,  solidified  into  the  two  legislative  bodies  of 
Lords  and  Commons.  This,  like  all  great  constitutional 
changes,  was  not  the  deliberate  outcome  of  a  theory,  but 
was  the  necessary  result  of  a  chain  of  circumstances. 
Mr.  Blaauw,  who  in  his  'Barons'  War'  was  almost  the 
first  to  present  de  Montfort's  character  in  its  true  light, 
remarks,  very  proptrly,  that  "  it  should  be  an  honest 
pride  to  us  in  after-times  that  English  liberty  thus  owes 
its  birth  to  confidence  in  the  people.'' 


264  KING,  BARONS,  AND  COMMONS,  [chap,  xv. 

The  triumph  of  the  barons  was  temporary.  Fresh 
jealousies  and  strife  broke  out  among  them.  Feudalism 
had  been  impaired  and  decaying  since  the  reign  of 
Henry  II.,  but  its  influence  was  still  too  strong  for  a 
complete  nationalization  to  be  effected.  There  were  two 
parties,  led  by  the  rival  Earls  of  Gloucester  and  of 
Leicester  ;  which  may  be  described  as  the  Moderate  and 
the  Advanced  parties.  The  former  obtained  their  chief 
desire  when  the  alien  harpies  had  been  summarily  ex- 
pelled from  the  realm.  They  seem  to  have  had  no  care 
for,  and  probably  they  mistrusted  and  disliked,  the  con- 
stitutional changes  embraced  by  the  foresight  of  da 
Montfort.  Moreover,  there  was  personal  rivalry  and 
disagreement  between  the  two  men.  The  powerful  Earl 
of  Gloucester,  thinking  that  the  other  meant  to  seize 
him,  withdrew  to  his  own  estates  and  called  together  his 
vassals  and  tenants.  He  also  sent  secretly  to  the  Lord 
Edward,  who  was  living  as  a  hostage  in  Hereford  Castle, 
under  surveillance,  and  supplied  him  with  a  swift  horse, 
on  which  he  escaped  one  day  while  out  hunting.  He 
went  to  Ludlow,  where  he  was  joined  by  Gloucester  and 
other  barons,  who  made  him  swear  to  persuade  his 
father  to  govern  only  by  the  Charters,  to  do  away  with 
all  evil  customs,  and  not  again  to  surround  himself  with 
foreign  favourites.  Henry  was  still  with  de  Montfort  and 
his  army  at  Evesham ;  towards  which  place  Edward  and 
his  friends  marched ;  meeting  Leicester's  son  on  the 
way  at  Kenilworth,  and  completely  routing  the  force 
which  he  was  leading  to  his  father's  aid.  It  was  a  literal 
stampede.  The  Battle  of  Evesham  followed,  on  August 
4,  1265;  raging  from  two  in  the  afternoon,  until  dusk. 
Almost  at  the  outset,  Leicester  was  abandoned  by  his 
Welsh  allies ;  but  his  personal  followers  fought  with 
desperation.  The  carnage  was  frightful.  Quarter  was 
neither  asked  nor  given.  Leicester  himself,  his  son 
Henry,  and  one  hundred  and  sixty  knights,  were  killed; 
but  no  account  has  been  kept  of  the  common  people  who 
met  with  their  death  on  that  dreadful  and  fatal  field. 
The  joy  of  the  Court  party  was  shown  in  brutal  indigni- 
ties perpetrated  on  the  body  of  the  great  leader ;  revolt- 
ing even  in  that  coarse  age.  De  Montfort's  vast  estates 
were   confiscated,   and   were   chiefly  bestowed  upon  the 


A.D.  1216-1272.]  DICTUM  OF  KENILWORTH.  265 

King's  relatives.  Heavy  fines  were  imposed  on  all  who 
had  aided  him.  The  grants  made  and  the  Charters 
given  during  Henry's  captivity  of  fourteen  months  were 
revoked  in  a  Parliament  of  his  adherents,  held  in 
Winchester  in  September,  1265.  The  defeated  barons 
and  their  supporters  withdrew  to  the  extensive  marshes 
and  swamps  known  as  the  Isle  of  Axholme,  in  Notts  ; 
and  also  to  the  Isle  of  Ely.  There,  as  Hereward  had 
done  two  centuries  earlier,  they  held  out  for  many 
months  against  the  forces  of  the  King.  Others  banded 
together  in  the  dense  forests  of  Hampshire  and  Berkshire. 
Another  party  made  a  long  and  obstinate  resistance  in 
Kenilworth  Castle,  but  at  length,  Pope  Clement  IV., 
who  had  been  Legate  to  England,  used  his  influence, 
and  persuaded  Henry  to  consent  to  lenient  measures. 
Twelve  mediators  were  appointed,  and  what  is  known 
as  the  Dictum  of  Kenilworth  was  agreed  to  in  November, 
1266.  The  price  of  pardon  and  redemption  was  fixed  at 
five  years'  purchase  of  the  lands ;  out  of  which  large 
rewards  were  bestowed  on  those  who  had  kept  on  the 
side  of  Henry,  and  on  others  who  had  to  surrender 
forfeited  estates  which  he  had  bestowed.  In  a  Parlia- 
ment held  at  Marlborough  in  November,  1267,  the 
Provisions  of  Westminster  were  confirmed,  and  the  most 
valuable  legal  reforms  of  the  constitutional  party  were 
formally  embodied  in  Statutes.  The  old  system  of  abso- 
lutism and  misrule  was  rendered  impossible ;  and  thus 
the  action  of  de  Montfort  and  his  associates  was  justified 
by  the  results. 

Five  years  later,  on  November  16,  1272,  Henry  III. 
died  at  Westminster,  aged  sixty-six ;  after  a  nominal 
reign  of  fifty-six  years.  The  effect  of  the  civil  war  is 
thus  told  by  Wikes,  a  Chronicler  of  the  time, — "  In  these 
five  years  past,  there  have  been  so  many  battles,  both  by 
land  and  sea,  so  much  slaughter  and  destruction  of  the 
people  of  England,  so  many  devastations,  plunderings, 
robberies,  thefts,  sacrileges,  perjuries,  treacheries,  and 
treasons,  that  the  nation  hath  lost  all  sense  of  distinction 
between  right  and  wrong,  between  virtue  and  vice."  Yet, 
during  this  long  reign,  with  its  misrule,  waste,  and  in- 
competence, there  was  national  growth  ;  silent  and 
unseen  at   the    time,    but    sure    and   abiding.     For   the 


266  LAW  AND  THE  JUDICATURE,  [chap.  xvi. 

ultimate  good  of  England  it  was  well  that  Henry  was 
intellectually  and  morally  emasculated.  Weak,  vacilla- 
ting, and  false ;  devoid  of  manliness  and  resolution  ; 
afflicted  with  a  paralysis  of  will ;  he  was  not  an  evil- 
disposed  man  like  his  father,  John.  If  he  had  possessed 
the  energy  and  determination  of  William  I.,  or  such 
qualities  as  his  own  son  afterwards  displayed,  the  growth 
of  popular  liberties  might  have  been  somewhat  checked  ; 
although  their  roots  were  too  firmly  planted  for  any  man 
to  arrest  them. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

LAW   AND   THE   JUDICATURE. 
A.D.    I272-129O. 

An  epoch  in  English  history  is  marked  by  the  reign  of 
the  first  Edward  (b.  1239,  r.  1272-1307).  It  was,  in  a 
lofty  sense,  the  Reign  of  Law.  Constitutionalism  was 
established  ;  the  Charters  of  Liberties  were  finally  con- 
firmed ;  and  Papal  claims  effectually  resisted.  The 
higher  courts  of  law  were  improved ;  arbitrary  taxes 
were  abolished ;  kingly  power  was  restricted ;  and  the 
principle  was  finally  settled  that  the  control  of  the 
national  purse  rests  with  the  nation's  representatives. 
Public  records  began  to  be  carefully  preserved  ;  many 
evils  were  removed  in  the  sale  and  tenure  of  land  ;  and 
the  Statute  of  Mortmain  guarded  against  the  absorption 
of  vast  property  by  troops  of  clergy,  monks,  and  friars. 
England  needed  a  just  and  strong  administration  for 
preserving  internal  peace ;  for  commercial  and  social 
development ;  and  for  carrying  out  the  salutary  enact- 
ments forced  upon  the  late  King.  His  son  must  have 
learned  from  recent  events  that  such  great  and  worthy 
ends  were  capable  of  being  secured  only  by  the  sympathy 
and  support  of  the  whole  nation,  and  that  it  was  prepared 
to  render  the  needful  aid.  Earl  Simon  and  his  associates 
had  been  cut  off;  but  it  was  in  the  hour  of  moral  victory. 
The  obj(;ct  of  their  enterprise  had  been  achieved.     It  was 


A.D.  1272-1290.]   GROWTH  OF  MIDDLE  CLASS.         267 

no  longer  possible  for  any  king  to  misrule  as  John  had 
done,  and  as  Henry  III.  repeatedly  sought  to  do.  He 
tried,  after  the  Battle  of  Evesham,  to  revert  to  his  old 
bad  courses ;  but  events  were  against  him,  and  the 
national  spirit  was  too  strong.  In  spite  of  himself,  he 
was  finally  compelled  to  accept  reforms  long  resisted  and 
often  evaded,  and  which  appeared  to  be  indefinitely 
deferred  by  the  death  of  Leicester  and  so  many  of  his 
friends  on  the  fatal  field  of  Evesham.  Henry  was  forced, 
during  the  remaining  seven  years  of  his  life,  to  revise  his 
expenditure,  and  to  obtain  the  consent  of  the  Great 
Council  to  the  imposition  of  taxes. 

His  son  knew  all  this  ;  for  he  had  taken  a  prominent 
part  in  public  affairs,  and  was  the  virtual  if  not  the  titular 
monarch.  He  was  now  thirty-three  years  old.  He  had 
learned  wisdom  and  purchased  experience  somewhat 
dearly.  He  evidently  possessed  a  desire,  with  the  English 
name,  to  be  an  English  king,  and  to  place  himself  at  the 
head  of  his  people,  so  as  to  become  a  power  in  Europe. 
To  accomplish  this,  order  had  to  be  restored  ;  strict  justice 
dispensed  ;  law  made  supreme  over  all  persons  and  classes  ; 
and  the  nation  allowed  to  assume  its  proper  responsibili- 
ties. It  may  not  have  been  present  to  his  mind  at  the 
outset,  but,  manifestly,  there  was  some  such  development 
of  purposes.  His  methods  were  not  always  the  best,  and 
he  committed  mistakes,  as  was  inevitable.  Nor  was  he 
free  from  faults ;  yet  absolute  failure  was  rare.  He  was, 
unquestionably,  a  wise  lawgiver,  an  astute  politician,  a 
sagacious  organizer,  and  a  capable  and  fearless  adminis- 
trator. The  reign  is  important  also  because  it  witnessed 
the  growth  of  the  great  middle-class  in  cities  and  boroughs, 
and  among  the  smaller  holders  of  land.  It  had  been 
slowly  rising,  and  continued  to  increase  in  numbers  and 
in  wealth  during  the  next  hundred  years.  All  this  helped 
to  pave  the  way  for  a  better  future.  Successful  resistance 
to  the  tyranny  and  the  encroachments  of  the  early  Plan- 
tagenet  monarchs,  taught  a  lesson  which  people  in  after 
times  were  not  slow  to  learn,  and  supplied  an  example 
which  they  readily  copied.  Not  even  the  character  and 
renown  of  Edward  I.  could  free  him  from  responsibility 
to  the  national  will.  His  wars  in  Wales,  in  Scotland, 
and   in  France,   if  they  added  to  his  fame,  drained   his 


268  LAV/ AND  THE  JUDICATURE,  [chap.  xvi. 

purse,  and  compelled  him  to  purchase  supplies  of  money 
by  yielding  to  the  growing  demands  for  freedom. 

Edward  was  in  Sicily,  on  his  way  home  from  a  Crusade 
in  Palestine,  when  news  came  of  his  father's  death.  He 
heard  that  the  country  was  quiet ;  that  a  Regency  was 
appointed ;  and  that  the  Earl  of  Gloucester,  whom  he 
had  most  reason  to  suspect,  had  taken  the  oath  of  fealty. 
The  new  King,  therefore,  did  not  hasten  his  journey,  but 
remained  on  the  Continent  for  more  than  a  year  ;  chiefly 
occupied  in  adjusting  the  disturbed  affairs  of  Guienne. 
He  reached  Dover  on  August  2,  1274.  Twenty-one  years 
before,  when  but  a  youth,  he  had  married  Eleanor  of 
Castile,  who  was  five  years  younger.  This  union  lasted 
for  thirty-seven  years  ;  and  when  she  died  at  Hornby, 
near  to  Lincoln,  in  1290,  her  husband,  inconsolable  as  the 
wife  of  Mausoleus,  by  way  of  perpetuating  her  memor}', 
had  crosses  erected  at  every  place  where  the  funeral 
procession  halted  on  its  way  to  London.  The  tradition 
that  she  saved  Edward's  life  when  he  was  wounded  by  a 
poisoned  dagger  in  Syria,  by  sucking  the  poison  out  of 
the  wound,  is  one  of  those  romantic  tales  that  rest  on  no 
basis  of  fact.  The  first  reference  to  it  is  found  in  a  Spanish 
writer  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  later.  Edward  and 
Eleanor  were  crowned  in  Westminster  Abbey,  August 
19,  1274,  by  Robert  Kilwardby,  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, who  had  been  Provincial  of  the  Dominicans.  The 
palace  yards  were  covered  with  wooden  buildings  in 
which  to  prepare  vast  quantities  of  food,  to  be  served  up 
at  banquets  for  a  fortnight.  All  comers,  of  every  degree, 
were  welcome.  The  streets  were  hung  with  rich  cloths 
of  silk,  arras,  and  tapestry.  The  public  conduits  flowed 
with  red  and  white  wine  ;  for  all  to  drink  who  chose. 

Not  long  after  the  coronation,  Edward  required 
Llewelyn,  Prince  of  Wales,  to  repair  to  his  court  and 
do  homage.  This  was  the  ostensible  reason.  The  real 
cause  was  the  danger  arising  from  the  close  proximity  of 
a  body  of  men  whose  position  and  habits  made  them 
freebooters.  For  many  years  frequent  disputes  had 
arisen  between  the  English  and  the  Welsh  borderers. 
The  independence  of  the  latter  in  their  mountain  fast- 
nesses had  always  been  a  grievance  to  the  Norman  kings, 
who   were,   however,   too   busy  to  attempt  a  conquest  0/ 


A.D.  1 272-1 290.]    INVASION  OF  WALE'S.  269 

Wales.  Henry  II.  marched  with  a  large  army  into 
Flintshire,  in  1157,  to  punish  the  Welsh  for  some  recent 
marauding  forays,  in  which  much  damage  and  loss  had 
been  sustained.  Fifty-four  years  later,  John  penetrated 
as  far  as  Snowdon,  and  Llewelyn's  predecessor  performed 
homage  for  his  principality.  In  reply  to  the  demand  now 
made,  he  urged  that  he  could  not  safely  go  to  the  court 
of  a  monarch  who  had  broken  a  solemn  treaty  made 
under  the  mediation  of  the  Pope,  and  who  received 
disaffected  and  rebellious  Welshmen  into  favour.  He 
demanded  that  hostages  should  be  given  for  his  sate 
return.  Instead  of  this,  he  was  declared  to  have  foifeited 
his  title  and  lands,  and  Edward  resolved  to  invade  the 
country.  The  first  campaign  was  fruitless  ;  but  he  sum- 
moned his  vassals  to  take  the  field  in  1277.  A  large 
army  was  collected,  of  which  the  King  himself  took 
command.  Roads  were  opened  as  far  as  Snowdon. 
Castles  like  those  of  Rhuddlan  and  Flint  were  taken 
and  strengthened.  The  Welsh  were  driven  back. 
Llewelyn  was  forced  to  sue  for  peace ;  and  had  to 
consent  to  the  hard  terms  imposed.  His  whole  prin- 
cipality was^  in  effect,  ceded,  except  the  Isle  of  Anglesea, 
and  this  also  was  to  revert  to  Edward  as  liege-lord  in  the 
event  of  Llewelyn  dying  childless,  after  his  marriage 
with  a  princess  of  the  English  royal  family. 

It  was  hoped  that  the  conquest  of  Wales  had  been 
accomplished.  The  King  of  England  thought  to  com- 
plete by  kindness  what  was  begun  by  force ;  but  hatred 
of  the  English  had  been  bequeathed  from  father  to  son 
through  many  generations.  The  Welsh  saw  with  anger 
the  gradual  extinction  of  their  national  customs,  and  the 
introduction  of  English  laws  and  English  rule.  Within 
five  years,  another  outbreak  occurred  ;  and  before  the 
close  of  1282  the  country  was  finally  joined  to  England. 
David,  the  brother  of  Llewelyn,  had  been  created  Earl 
of  Derby  by  Edward,  who  also  gave  him  in  marriage 
the  daughter  of  the  Earl  of  Ferrers,  with  extensive  estates 
m  both  countries.  David  was  not  satisfied.  He  imagined 
that  he  had  cause  of  complaint  in  the  acts  of  some  of  the 
royal  officers.  Justice  was  promised  to  be  done ;  but  he 
persuaded  his  brother  to  join  him  in  rising  against  the 
English.     The  different  chieftains  assembled  their  friends 


270  LAW  AND  THE  JUDICATURE,  [chap,  xvi 

and  poured  down  from  the  mountains,  laying  the  country 
waste  with  fire  and  sword,  and  acting  Hke  savages  towards 
the  English,  and  towards  their  own  people  who  sided 
with  them.  Not  without  great  difficulty  and  loss  was 
this  rising  suppressed ;  but,  at  length,  Llewelyn  was 
slain  in  one  contest,  and  his  brother  was  taken  prisoner 
in  another.  Deprived  of  their  leaders,  the  Welsh  were  sub- 
dued. Edward  spent  more  than  a  year  in  the  country,  or 
on  the  borders  ;  to  render  his  conquest  secure.  He  fortified 
the  castles  of  Conway  and  of  Carnarvon,  and  partitioned 
the  country  around  among  the  most  powerful  of  his 
nobles.  His  chief  object  was  to  secure  the  friendship  of 
the  natives,  and  to  induce  them  to  become  good  subjects. 
He  offered  peace  and  protection  to  all ;  with  leave  to 
retain  their  lands  ;  liable  only  to  the  same  services  by 
which  these  had  been  held  of  the  native  princes.  To 
attract  the  people  from  their  roving  habits  of  life,  he  set 
up  corporate  bodies  of  merchants  in  various  large  towns. 
To  restrain  the  spirit  of  violence,  he  established  English 
courts,  and  divided  the  country  into  Shires  and  Hundreds. 
During  his  stay,  a  son,  afterwards  Edward  II.,  was  born 
at  Carnarvon,  in  1284.  Seventeen  years  later,  as  a  matter 
of  policy,  he  was  created  Prince  of  Wales ;  the  origin 
of  the  title  subsequently  borne  by  the  heir  to  the  throne. 
It  has  been  often  said,  although  without  any  evidence, 
that  the  King  ordered  the  massacre  of  all  the  Welsh 
bards,  so  that  the  patriotism  of  the  people  might  not  be 
aroused  by  their  songs  and  tales.  The  statement— in 
itself  glaringly  improbable — is  first  met  with  in  a  national 
writer  of  the  sixteenth  century.  It  was  implicitly  accepted 
by  Hume,  and  forms  the  theme  of  Gray's  famous  Ode — ■ 
"  Ruin  seize  thee,  ruthless  King  !  "  In  this  way,  post- 
dated written  history,  by  the  aid  of  mellifluous  poetry, 
becomes  a  synopsis  of  mere  rumours. 

Wales  suffered  for  more  than  two  centuries  from 
misrule  and  anarchy,  amidst  the  troubles  that  arose  in 
England.  Not  until  Tudor  times  were  wise  attempts 
made  to  humanize  the  people  by  equal  laws,  and  to 
combine  England  and  Wales  into  one  political  unity. 
In  May,  1286,  Edward,  leaving  the  Earl  of  Pembroke 
as  Regent,  went  to  his  continental  possessions  in  Guienne, 
where  he  remained  for  upwards  of  three  years.     On  his 


A.D.  1272-1290.J  ATTEMPTED  CODIFICATION.        271 

return  he  was  met  by  complaints  that  the  judges, 
corrupted  by  bribes  and  enriched  by  extortion,  had  given 
many  false  judgments  and  been  guilty  of  oppression.  As 
has  been  already  shown,  the  administration  of  justice  had 
not  been  absolutely  pure  since  the  Norman  Conquest, 
nor  was  the  evil  wholly  remedied  by  the  famous  fortieth 
clause  in  the  Creat  Charter.  Existing  records  supply 
many  instances  of  interference  with  the  judges  by  princes, 
nobles,  patrons,  and  friends  ;  with  a  view  to  secure  favour- 
able decisions.  Corruption  prevailed  to  a  large  extent  by 
means  of  fees  and  bribes.  Edward  I.  determined  to  make 
an  example  that  should  put  a  stop  to  this  evil.  Rigid 
inquiries  were  instituted ;  resulting  in  the  dismissal  and 
disgrace  of  nearly  all  the  judges,  ten  of  whom  were  fined 
in  sums  ranging  from  one  to  four  thousand  marks.  That 
the  evil  was  of  great  extent  appears  from  a  song  of  the 
time,  which  Thomas  Wright  has  paraphrased.  It  speaks 
plainly  of  judges  "whom  partiality  and  bribes  seduce 
from  justice.  They  pay  toll  to  the  devil,  and  serve  him 
alone."  They  had  agents,  to  arrange  terms  with  suitors. 
The  poor  could  not  obtain  a  hearing.  Wealthy  persons, 
and  good-looking  ladies  willing  to  make  a  market  of  their 
charms,  alone  could  hope  to  succeed. 

To  remedy  these  admitted  evils,  some  important 
changes  were  made  in  legal  administration  ;  not  so  much 
in  the  way  of  originality  and  initiative,  as  in  defining  and 
systematizing  what  had  gone  before.  English  law  had 
grown  like  a  dense  forest,  where  the  trees  could  not  attain 
their  proper  size,  and  where  access  was  blocked  by  a 
tangle  of  underwood.  This  exuberant  growth  needed  to 
be  pruned  away  and  reduced  to  order  and  symmetry. 
Hence  much  of  the  legislation  aimed,  in  spirit,  if  not  in 
avowed  form,  at  a  codification  of  old  laws  and  usages. 
The  First  Statute  of  Westminister,  in  1275,  is  a  miniature 
code,  covering  nearly  the  whole  sphere  of  law.  The 
Statute  of  Gloucester,  in  1278,  sought  to  regulate  the 
franchises  of  the  feudal  barons.  A  larger  and  more 
important  step  in  the  same  direction  was  taken  in  1285 
by  the  Second  Statute  of  Westminster  ;  the  first  clause 
of  which,  on  conditional  gifts,  had  a  momentous  bearing 
on  the  future  land  laws  of  England,  by  the  creation  of 
estates    strictly   entailed.       Important    changes    in    legal 


272  LAW  AND  THE  JUDICATURE,  [chap.  xvi. 

procedure  were  made  by  other  Statutes.  That  of 
Winchester,  in  1285,  was  intended  to  reorganize  such 
popular  jurisdictions  as  the  ancient  Hundred  Court ; 
and  to  estabUsh  a  poHce  system  on  the  old  lines  of 
mutual  responsibility.  As  the  interests  of  the  Crown 
and  those  of  the  people  were  frequently  opposed  to  the 
claims  of  the  great  landowners,  the  courts  of  provincial 
judicature  were  improved  ;  the  functions  of  sheriffs 
limited ;  the  circuits  of  the  judges  re-arranged ;  and 
increased  facilities  given  for  hearing  in  the  King's  courts 
at  Westminster  suits  which  could  not  be  fairly  settled  in 
the  country.  In  the  early  years  of  this  reign  occurred 
the  final  division  of  the  three  chief  tribunals.  These 
were  henceforth  known  as  the  Court  of  Exchequer — 
which,  as  mentioned  in  Chapter  X.,  had  long  existed — 
dealing  with  all  causes  that  affected  the  revenue  ;  the 
Court  of  King's  Bench,  to  determine  suits  in  which  the 
monarch,  as  representing  the  body  politic,  was  concerned  ; 
and  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  for  suits  between  private 
persons.  Three  distinct  staffs  of  judges  were  appointed 
for  these  Courts.  Other  improvements  were  made  in 
the  Common  Law,  particularly  the  withdrawal  of  the 
clergy— who  were  its  greatest  foes — from  the  Bench  and 
the  Bar,  in  obedience  to  a  Canon  made  in  1217  ;  the 
establishment  of  law  colleges  or  Inns  of  Court,  for  the 
education  of  lawyers  ;  and  the  discountenancing  of  trials 
by  ordeal  and  by  single  combat. 

The  principal  civil  administrators  continued  to  be 
ecclesiastics.  Henceforward,  the  Statutes  of  the  Realm 
lorm  a  continuous  series,  and  furnish  valuable  in- 
formation concerning  the  national  life.  The  Year 
Books,  dating  from  the  same  era,  and  continued  in 
almost  unbroken  succession  for  more  than  two  centuries, 
contain  reports  in  Norman-French  of  cases  heard  and 
decided  in  the  Common  Law  Courts.  They  are  the 
foundation  of  the  kx  non  scripta  of  England,  and  have 
always  been  held  in  high  veneration  as  the  earliest 
recorded  judgments  and  dicta  of  the  legal  luminaries 
of  former  ages.  Whatever  their  defects,  these  Year 
Books  are  the  first  in  a  long  line  of  judicial  reports 
in  which  England  is  so  rich,  and  in  comparison  with 
which  as  Bentham  remarks,  the  wealth  of  other  nations 


A.D.  1 272- 1 290.]  INSTRUCTIONS  TO  COUNSEL.        273 

is  penury.  They  also  show  that  the  passion  for  Htigation, 
as  in  the  old  Greek  and  Roman  days,  and  as  in  modern 
times,  is  consuming  and  insatiable. 

A  casual  visitor  to  the  law  courts  of  the  thirteenth 
century,  must  have  been  as  much  surprised  and  amused 
at  what  he  saw  as  is  a  rustic  of  our  own  day.  Treatises 
were  written  for  the  guidance  and  instruction  of  counsel. 
One  of  them,  the  '  Speculum  Juris '  of  Durand,  who 
is  supposed  to  have  died  about  1296,  was  very  popular 
for  a  lengthened  period,  and  was  regarded  as  an  authority. 
He  gives  copious  advice  to  counsel  in  their  treatment  of 
one  another  and  of  witnesses ;  and  in  their  bearing  before 
the  judge.  Durand  must  have  been  a  shrewd  observer 
of  men  and  things.  He  says, — "When  before  the  judge, 
you  are  to  take  off  your  cap  and  make  an  obeisance, 
graduated  according  to  his  rank.  Do  not  be  loquacious. 
Address  him  in  a  manner  that  may  be  pleasing  to  him. 
If  he  be  angry  do  not  rejoin.  Do  not  laugh  causelessly 
before  the  judge.  When  he  speaks,  listen  respectfully, 
and  then  laud  his  wisdom  and  eloquence " ;  with  much 
more  to  the  same  effect.  Durand  criticises  prevalent 
modes  of  speaking.  Some  counsel  "  rise  with  arrogance, 
rub  the  face,  push  the  hair  behind  the  ears,  blow  the  nose 
loudly,  clear  the  throat,  or  examine  their  hands  and  their 
dress."  Some  alternately  lift  their  eyes  to  heaven  and 
bow  their  head,  or  they  wrinkle  the  forehead,  compress 
the  lips,  frown,  and  fix  their  hands  on  their  hips.  Some 
begin  eloquently  and  end  badly.  Some  think  that  plenty 
of  words  atone  for  want  of  sense  and  give  a  good  return 
for  the  fee.  "  You  should  be  concise ;  pretend  to  be 
simple ;  abound  in  generalities ;  using  ambiguous  and 
equivocal  words.  Obtain  as  many  delays  as  possible,  but 
cautiously,  lest  the  Judge  presume  against  you.  You 
should  not  habitually  take  a  low  fee  for  pleading,  lest 
you  lose  your  reputation.  Undertake  those  causes  only 
which  you  can  conscientiously  advocate.  If  a  cause  be 
desperate,  give  it  up."  Advice  and  caution  of  this  kind 
are  freely  given  by  Durand,  with  a  mixture  of  shrewdness 
and  humour.  Some  of  his  monitions  are  still  remembered 
and  practised,  though  their  precise  origin  is  unknown  to 
many.  Others  have  become  obsolete  with  legal  reforms 
and   changed   conditions.     Some,    that   have    fallen   into 


274  LAIVAXD  THE  JUDICATURE,  [chap.  xvi. 

desuetude,  might    be    revived   with    advantage    to    suitois 
and  the  pubHc. 

From  this  reign,  also,  the  State  documents  are  duly 
preserved  and  arranged.  Presses  or  shelves  do  not  seem 
to  have  been  much  used.  Chests  or  coffers  bound  with 
iron  ;  pouches  or  bags  of  canvas  or  leather ;  "  skippets," 
or  small  round  boxes  turned  in  a  lathe  ;  *'  hanapers,"  or 
hampers  of  twigs  or  rushes  ;  and  "  tills,"  or  drawers,  are 
mentioned  as  receptacles  for  deeds  and  papers.  Reference 
was  made  to  them  by  letters,  by  labels,  or  by  rude 
sketches,  generally  having  some  allusion  to  the  contents. 
Thus,  the  sign  of  the  instruments  relating  to  Aragon,  is 
a  lancer  on  a  jennet ;  to  Wales,  a  Briton  in  the  costume 
of  his  country,  with  one  foot  shod  and  the  other  bare ; 
to  Ireland,  a  man  clothed  in  a  hooded  cape  ;  to  Scotland, 
a  Lochaber  axe ;  to  Yarmouth,  three  herrings  united ;  to 
the  Subsidy  on  wool,  a  pair  of  shears ;  and  like  emblems, 
of  which  various  examples  yet  remain.  All  the  great 
series  of  Records,  except  those  of  Parliament,  are  written 
in  Latin,  with  the  spelling  much  abbreviated.  During 
the  Commonwealth,  English  was  substituted  ;  but  Latin 
was  resumed  after  the  Restoration  of  the  Stuarts.  The 
records  of  the  Law  Courts  continued  to  be  thus  kept 
until  a  change  was  decreed  by  Act  of  Parliament  in  the 
reign  of  George  IL  •  although,  in  certain  branches  of 
the  Exchequer,  Latin  was  in  use  when  the  offices  were 
abolished  in  recent  times.  Most  of  the  Statutes  from  the 
reign  of  Edward  I.  to  that  of  Henry  V.,  and  the  principal 
parts  of  the  Rolls  of  Parliament,  are  in  Norman-French. 
Petitions  continued  to  be  presented  in  that  language 
until  the  reign  of  Richard  IL,  and  the  royal  consent  to 
or  refusal  of  Bills  is,  even  now,  couched  in  the  ancient 
phrase.  Seals  appended  to  the  documents  of  the  time  are 
beautiful  specimens  of  art ;  many  of  the  impressions 
being  still  sharp  and  clear.  They  were  attached  by  silk 
strings,  and  were  usually  enclosed  for  preservation  in 
linen  or  worsted  bags ;  sometimes  richly  decorated  in 
colours  or  in  gold.  Tin  boxes,  such  as  are  now  used 
for  seals,  do  not  date  back  farther  than  the  reign  of 
Henry  VIII.  The  composition  of  the  wax  changed  from 
time  to  time.  From  Henry  I.  to  the  early  part  of 
Edward  I.,  pale  red  was  mostly  used.     Green    was   first 


A.D.  1 272- 1 290.]  SEALS.  275 

introduced  under  Henry  III.  ;  and,  in  its  turn,  gave  place 
to  yellow.  The  seals  were  sometimes  covered  with  a 
coating  of  varnish.  It  is  a  popular  though  erroneous 
idea  that  the  various  Charters  were  signed  by  the 
Sovereigns  who  granted  them.  Such  documents  were 
sealed ;  for  the  art  of  writing  was  almost  confined  to  the 
clergy.  In  Saxon  times,  signatures  were  more  common 
than  in  the  thirteenth  century.  Instruments  were  then 
often  attested  by  crosses,  or  other  rude  signs ;  the  cross 
being  regarded  as  an  emblem  of  true  faith  in  the  parties 
to  the  deed ;  and  it  frequently  preceded  the  names  of 
those  who  could  write.  Hence  arose  the  custom,  still 
used  by  illiterate  persons,  of  making  their  mark.  Not 
until  the  time  of  Richard  II.  did  royal  signatures  come 
generally  into  use.  They  were  then  called  Signs  Manual, 
from  being  written  by  the  King's  own  hand.  It  was  a 
Common  Law  maxim,  however,  that  sealing  was  sufficient 
to  render  a  document  valid,  provided  it  was  delivered 
before  witnesses.  Hence  the  expression  in  the  Charters, 
Date  per  tnanum  nosiram,  or,  "  Given  under  our  hand." 

On  his  return  from  Palestine,  Edward  I.  discovered 
that  during  his  father's  reign  the  revenue  had  been  much 
lessened  by  tenants  parting  with  their  lands  and  with- 
holding the  Crown  rights.  He  found  also  that  many 
oppressions  and  exactions  had  been  committed  by  great 
nobles,  who  claimed  the  right  of  free  chase,  free  warren, 
and  free  fishery,  and  demanded  heavy  tolls  on  goods 
brought  to  fairs  and  markets.  For  the  correction  of  such 
abuses,  special  commissioners  were  appointed,  and  the 
results  of  their  inquiries  are  entered  on  what  are  known 
as  the  Hundred  Rolls.  Evidence  was  furnished,  on  the 
oath  of  a  jury  taken  from  each  Hundred  in  the  Counties, 
of  all  the  ancient  Crown  lands  and  tenants,  with  their 
immunities  and  privileges,  and  of  various  wrongs  done 
by  great  nobles  and  powerful  clergy.  The  statements 
given  reveal  the  hardships  inflicted  upon  the  inferior 
tenantry  by  baronial,  knightly,  and  clerical  holders  of 
royal  estates  and  offices ;  who  interfered  with  trade  and 
industry,  and  imposed  vexatious  and  costly  restrictions 
upon  locomotion  by  pontage  and  ferriage.  They  fully 
establish  the  truth  of  allegations  made  by  contemporary 
writers,  that  the  condition  of  the  great  body  of  the  people 


276  LA  W  AND  THEJUDTCA  TURE.  [chap.  xvi. 

was  pitiably  low.  They  enjoyed  but  a  small  share  of 
civil  liberty.  The  nominal  protection  of  law  did  not 
defend  them  from  the  oppressions  of  powerful  barons  ; 
many  of  whom  were  petty  tyrants.  Regard  for  human 
suffering  was  a  rare  quality,  outside  of  the  Church  and 
the  Cloister.  Open  robbery,  attended  with  violence,  was 
not  infrequent.  Bands  of  armed  men  united  to  attack 
and  plunder  travellers,  and  to  commit  depredations  in 
villages,  towns,  and  fairs.  The  town  of  Boston  was  thus 
assailed  during  a  fair  in  1285,  and  was  fired  in  three 
places ;  the  robbers  marching  off  with  immense  booty. 
In  Hampshire,  their  numbers  were  so  great,  that  no  jury 
would  convict ;  partly  from  dread,  and  partly  because  so 
many  shared  in  the  guilt.  These  disorders  sprang  out  of 
the  feeble  and  troubled  reign  of  Henry  HI.,  and  they  were 
not  put  an  end  to,  as  is  further  shown  in  the  twentieth 
Chapter,  even  under  the  Rhadamanthus-like  rule  of  his 
son.  A  curious  illustration  is  furnished  by  a  struggle  in 
1275  between  the  monks  of  St.  Alban's  and  their  villeins. 
The  abbot  was  bent  upon  enforcing  his  exclusive  right  to 
grind  corn  for  the  town,  to  full  cloth,  and  to  enclose 
common  lands.  Moreover,  he  prohibited  any  appeal'  from 
his  jurisdiction  to  the  Hundred  Court.  The  villeins  com- 
bined to  resist,  and  formed  a  fund  for  mutual  protection. 
Not  much  seems  to  have  come  of  it  at  the  moment,  but 
it  is  noteworthy  as  a  sign  of  the  times.  Such  occurrences 
probably  gave  rise  in  1290  to  what  is  known  as  the 
Statute  Quia  Emptores ;  from  the  opening  sentence;  a 
common  mode  of  distinguishing  early  enactments  and 
writs.  This  one  was  framed  by  the  King  and  the  great 
landowners,  avowedly  to  preserve  and  enforce  the  power 
of  the  lords  of  the  soil.  The  design  was  to  prevent  a 
transference  or  alienation  of  any  of  their  rights  to  a  third 
person.  In  order  to  effect  this,  they  were  constrained, 
for  the  first  time,  to  recognise  the  right  of  the  tenant  to 
his  share  of  the  land,  provided  only  that  the  lord's  rights 
were  secured.  The  essential  clause  opens  thus, — "The 
King  has  granted,  provided,  and  ordained,  at  the  instance 
of  the  nobles,  that  for  the  future  every  freeman  shall  be 
allowed  to  sell  his  land,  his  tenement,  or  a  part  of  it, 
according  to  his  pleasure."  Thus  the  class  above  the 
villeins  was  benefited;   and  a  prospect  was  opened  for 


A.D.  1 272- 1 290.]       QUO  WARRANTO.  277 

the  villeins  themselves  to  rise  to  the  condition  of  free 
tenants.  This  important  enactment  operated  in  restraint 
of  feudalism ;  as  the  other  famous  Statute,  De  Religiosis, 
or  Mortmain,  in  1279,  did  with  regard  to  the  Church; 
as  explained  in  the  following  Chapter. 

Another  Statute,  known  as  Quo  Warranto,  was  passed 
in  July,  1290,  at  an  Assen^bly  of  Magnates  in  West- 
minster, to  set  at  rest  many  disputes  as  to  the  possession 
of  landed  property,  which  had  arisen  during  the  troubles 
of  the  preceding  reign.  It  decreed  that  the  respective 
holders  must  prove  that  their  ancestors  had  quiet  posses- 
sion in  the  time  of  Richard  I.  A  story  is  told  that  when 
John  de  Warrenne,  Earl  of  Surrey,  was  called  upon  to 
establish  his  titles,  he  grimly  drew  his  sword,  and  replied 
that  his  ancestors  landed  in  England  with  William  of 
Normandy,  and  assisted  him  to  win  the  kingdom  by 
their  trusty  weapons,  and  that  by  the  same  right  he 
held  and  should  retain  his  estates.  As  the  old  grievances 
about  the  royal  forests  remained,  although  to  a  smaller 
extent  than  formerly,  "perambulators"  were  appointed 
in  1299,  to  inquire  what  were  the  ancient  boundaries,  so 
as  to  settle  the  limits.  Their  returns  were  confirmed  in 
a  Parliament  held  in  Lincoln,  January  29,  1301.  The 
rule  laid  down  was  that  whatever  could  not  be  shown  to 
have  been  forest  at  the  accession  of  Henry  II.,  should 
be  disafforested.  By  this  procedure,  many  of  the  barons 
were  able  to  add  largely  to  their  estates  at  the  King's 
expense,  but  the  intended  remedy  gave  rise  to  another 
evil.  The  royal  forests  were  no  longer  vast  solitudes, 
occupied  only  by  animals  of  the  chase.  The  borders 
were  peopled  by  cottagers,  who  had  been  permitted  to 
rear  their  humble  dwellings,  and  were  allowed  pannage, 
turbary,  pasturage,  and  some  kinds  of  tillage.  Many 
suddenly  found  themselves  evicted.  In  the  Parliament 
of  Westminster,  1305,  petitions  were  sent  to  the  King  by 
'"certain  people  that  be  put  out  of  the  forests  by  the 
great  men,"  praying  "  that  they  may  be  as  they  were 
wont  to  be  heretofore."  The  next  year,  an  Ordinance 
was  issued  by  the  King  to  abate  the  evil,  and  to  "  com- 
fort those  who  cried  unto  him  for  succour.  They 
wf^re  to  be  at  liberty  to  remove  within  the  newly-fixed 
bounds,  and  to  enjoy  such  favours  as  before. 


278  DISPUTES  WITH  THE  CLERGY,  [chap.  xvil. 

CHAPTER  XVIL 

DISPUTES   WITH    THE   CLERGY. 
A.D.    1272-1307. 

No  fewer  than  twelve  Parliaments  were  held  during  the 
reign  of  Edward  I.  His  military  ardour;  his  desire  to 
unite  the  whole  of  Britain  under  his  sway ;  and  the  need 
for  raising  taxes,  led  to  these  frequent  meetings  of  the 
Legislature,  and  favoured  the  growth  of  popular  liberties. 
The  great  change  introduced  in  1265  by  de  Montfort,  in 
inviting  the  attendance  of  burgesses  from  certain  towns, 
was  not  at  once  followed  up.  It  was  a  transition  period. 
No  uniform  practice  was  adopted.  Sometimes,  special 
commissions  of  judges  were  sent  into  a  district  to  confer 
with  the  inhabitants  in  the  county-courts  as  to  taxation. 
At  other  times,  there  was  a  system  of  local  assessment, 
whereby  the  moveable  property  of  each  taxpayer  was 
valued  by  a  jury  of  his  neighbours.  Sometimes  this  was 
done  by  the  royal  officers.  Occasionally,  there  was  an 
informal  kind  of  Parliament  for  taxing  purposes ;  as  in 
1283,  when  two  such  assemblies  were  held  in  York  and 
in  Northampton,  attended  by  four  knights  from  each 
shire  and  two  representatives  from  certain  cities  and 
boroughs.  On  several  occasions  during  the  next  twelve 
years,  the  barons,  the  clergy,  the  knights,  and  the 
burgesses  in  varying  numbers  were  convened,  together 
or  separately,  mainly  for  purposes  connected  with  the 
raising  of  money.  By  these  means,  the  King  obtained 
what  he  wanted  for  emergencies. 

At  length  it  was  found  to  be  necessary  to  have  a  due 
representation  of  the  whole  community,  not  only  for 
fiscal  purposes  but  for  legislative  and  political  action. 
Accordingly,  in  1295,  city  and  town  burgesses,  from 
places  selected  by  the  King,  were  summoned  to  assemble 
with  the  nobles,  prelates,  clergy,  and  knights,  "to  pro- 
vide against  the  dangers  which  threaten  the  kingdom "  : 
because  "that  which  touches  all  should  be  approved  by 
all."  This  was  really  the  first  of  a  long  and  an  illustrious 
line  of  Parliaments  in  England.  The  form  then  adopted 
slowly    matured   into    constitutional    usage.       Writs    were 


A.D.  1272-1307.]  GROWTH  OF  PARLIAMENT.  279 

issued  to  seven  earls,  forty-one  barons,  the  prelates  and 
mitred  abbots,  to  each  county,  and  to  a  fluctuating 
number  of  cities  and  boroughs.  Some  of  the  latter  did 
not  comply,  or  excused  themselves  at  subsequent  elections, 
on  account  of  the  expense  and  trouble  ;  preferring  to  be 
included  in  the  county  representation,  so  as  to  pay  a 
Fifteenth  on  Subsidies  instead  of  a  Tenth.  Seven  years 
later,  in  April,  1302,  the  States-General  of  France,  in 
their  three  orders  of  nobles,  clergy,  and  commons,  were 
convened  by  Philip  IV. ;  being  a  revival  and  an  extension 
of  a  system  that  had  fallen  into  desuetude  after  the 
time  of  Charlemagne.  The  immediate  object  was  to 
protest  against  the  action  of  Pope  Boniface  VIII.  (b.  1228, 
r.  1 294-1303),  in  declaring  that  the  realm  was  held  of 
him.  The  claim  was  repudiated ;  the  Papal  Bull  was 
burnt  in  Paris  ;  and  a  war  of  retaliation  was  commenced 
in  Italy.  Boniface  was  captured  ;  and  on  his  death,  the 
first  of  a  line  of  Popes  under  French  influence  arose  in 
Clement  V.,  with  the  removal  of  the  Holy  See  from 
Rome  to  Avignon.  It  continued  there  down  to  1377, 
and  was  followed  by  the  Great  Schism  of  forty  years 
between  rival  Pontiff's,  which  was  not  healed  until  the 
Council  of  Constance,  in   1417. 

In  both  counties  and  boroughs  residents  were  chosen 
as  representatives,  as  a  matter  of  custom ;  which  was 
embodied  in  a  Statute  in  the  first  year  of  Henry  V.,  and 
continued  until  the  time  of  Elizabeth.  The  rule  still 
prevails  in  the  United  States  of  America.  Before  long, 
the  usage  respecting  peers  came  to  be  that  only  the 
tenants-in-chief  among  the  barons  were  called  by  writ 
to  the  Parliament.  The  rule  was  not  based  on  any  legal 
enactment,  but  was  established  as  a  matter  of  obvious 
convenience.  The  King  increased  or  varied  the  number 
by  the  writs  of  summons,  and  this  limited  body  became 
in  time  the  hereditary  House  of  Lords.  In  the  first 
actual  Parliament  of  1295,  the  clergy,  by  the  proctors 
who  represented  them,  granted  to  the  Crown  a  tenth  of 
their  revenues ;  the  nobles  and  knights  an  eleventh  of 
all  their  moveables ;  and  the  citizens  and  burgesses  a 
seventh.  By  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century  the 
usage  was  settled  of  two  Houses  of  the  Legislature,  with 
a  separate    representation  of  the  clergy  in    Convocation, 


28o        DISPUTES  WITH  THE  CLERGY,  [chap.  xvii. 

and  of  a  levy  of  a  Fifteenth  from  the  counties  and  a 
Tenth  from  the  towns.  Such  a  system  yielded  more, 
while  it  was  less  odious  in  operation,  than  the  older 
methods  of  levying  Tallages  at  will  upon  chartered 
boroughs  and  upon  the  royal  tenants.  What  was  of 
greater  consequence,  it  finally  determined  the  principle 
of  self-taxation,  which  enabled  Parliament  in  the  end  to 
resist  the  royal  power  when  it  became  too  great.  Rights 
were  being  established  by  the  slow  but  sure  law  of 
growth.  In  admitting  this  principle  of  self-taxation,  a 
power  was  set  up  that  proved  capable  of  checking  the 
prerogative.  In  the  sequel,  as  must  constantly  be  re- 
iterated, on  account  of  its  importance,  Parliament  was 
not  slow  to  seize  upon  the  advantages  offered  in  debates 
upon  the  national  grievances,  to  insist  upon  their  redress 
before  voting  money. 

Until  nearly  the  close  of  the  reign  of  Henry  II.,  most 
of  the  taxes  raised  had  been  levied  on  land.  It  was  held 
under  strict  conditions ;  one  of  which  was  the  pro- 
viding for  the  defence  of  the  kingdom  and  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  royal  authority,  either  by  personal 
service  or  by  a  money  payment.  The  only  other  mode 
of  raising  money  was  by  an  occasional  poll-tax  on  the 
inhabitants  of  borough  towns.  Then  was  devised,  for 
the  exigencies  of  the  foreign  expeditions  of  Richard  I., 
the  plan  of  taxing  moveable  property,  including  house- 
hold furniture  and  business  stock  :  on  which  a  thirtieth, 
a  fifteenth,  a  tenth,  and  sometimes  more,  was  levied. 
The  great  increase  of  the  trading  community,  and  the 
growing  wealth  of  cities  and  towns,  made  this  plan  of 
raising  revenue  convenient  and  easy  under  Henry  III. 
It  was  the  more  readily  employed  because  there  were  few 
foreign  expeditions  to  furnish  pretexts  for  demanding 
Scutage  in  lieu  of  military  service.  By  the  time  of 
Edward  I.,  a  considerable  ]:)art  of  the  taxation  was 
derived  from  moveables,  or  from  what  would  now  be 
described  as  personal  property.  But  it  was  found  to  be 
onerous,  and  in  many  instances  it  became  oppressive. 
The  clergy  made  grants  in  Convocation  in  varying 
degrees.  There  were  also  frequent  Tallages  on  the  royal 
property.  Sometimes,  the  King  resorted  to  arbitrary 
measures ;  as  if  the   newly-settled    Parliamentary  institu- 


A.D.  1272-1307.]    TAXES  ON  MOVEABLES.  281 

tions  had  no  force  against  himself.  On  one  occasion,  for 
example,  he  limited  the  quantity  of  wool  that  might  be 
exported,  and  placed  on  it,  of  his  own  will,  a  duty  of 
forty  shillings  per  sack  ;  or  more  than  one-third  of  its 
then  value.  At  another  time,  by  a  sweeping  measure  of 
Purveyance,  that  grew  at  length  to  the  portentous 
dimensions  described  in  the  twenty-fourth  Chapter,  he 
demanded  of  each  sheriff  twenty  thousand  quarters  of 
wheat  and  oats  ;  commanding  them  to  be  seized  wherever 
found.  He  interfered  in  arbitrary  fashion  with  the  City 
of  London  and  other  corporate  bodies,  who  naturally 
objected  to  trading  monopolies  conferred  upon  foreigners 
in  return  for  a  money  bribe  paid  to  the  King. 

Exceptional  and  extreme  instances  of  tyranny  such  as 
those  above  named  were  resorted  to  for  the  purpose  of 
meeting  special  needs,  and  were  rendered  possible  by  the 
inchoate  character  of  the  early  legislation  of  this  reign. 
The  Lombard  bankers  and  money-lenders  settled  in 
London  could  not  be  fleeced  as  the  Jews  had  been ;  and 
they  were  able  to  exact  stringent  terms  for  loans. 
Edward's  great  schemes  respecting  Wales,  Scotland,  and 
the  Continent  always  kept  him  impecunious  and  in  debt ; 
and  herein  lies  an  explanation  of  some  of  the  defects  of 
his  character  and  the  difficulties  of  his  position.  One 
plan  devised,  which  obtained  Parliamentary  sanction  in 
1275,  was  for  levying  a  tax  of  half  a  mark,  or  six  shillings 
and  eightpence,  on  each  sack  of  wool  exported.  It  is 
easy  to  perceive  that  the  fiscal  measure  thus  forged  might 
be  used  at  times  in  an  arbitrary  fashion.  In  like  manner, 
in  1303,  he  convened  the  foreign  merchants,  and  offered 
certain  trading  privileges,  on  condition  of  their  paying  a 
tax  on  goods  brought  in.  It  was,  perhaps,  within  the 
strict  letter  of  the  law  of  1297;  but  it  was  a  gross  and 
palpable  infraction  of  the  spirit  of  that  measure.  Such 
duties  on  wool,  wine,  and  merchandize  formed,  in  1309, 
the  subject  of  a  petition  in  Parliament,  as  contravening 
the  provisions  of  the  Great  Charter.  They  were  sus- 
pended for  a  time  by  the  Lords  Ordainers ;  but  were 
revived  in  1322  ;  though  they  did  not  receive  legislative 
sanction  until  1353. 

Such  high-handed  procedure  on  the  part  of  Edward  I. 
was  not  so  easy  as  in  former  times.     People  would  Jiol 


282         DISPUTES  WITH  THE  CLERGY,  [chap.  xvii. 

Namely  submit  to  be  robbed  under  the  form  of  law,  even 
by  a  great  and  popular  monarch.  A  remarkable  proof  of 
this  occurred  in  1296.  He  was  about  to  lead  an  army 
into  Flanders,  and  he  designed  to  send  another  into 
Guienne  under  the  Earls  of  Hereford  and  Norfolk. 
These  two  great  nobles  were  aggrieved  by  levies  of 
money  and  goods  made  by  the  royal  orders.  Both 
declined  to  go ;  saying  that  they  were  only  bound  to 
attend  the  sovereign  in  person.  In  a  great  rage  Edward 
said  to  Norfolk, — "By  the  Eternal  God,  Sir  Earl,  you 
shall  either  go  or  hang."  He  was  instantly  told  in  reply, 
— "  By  the  Eternal  God,  Sir  King,  I  will  neither  go  nor 
hang."  The  two  nobles  then  left  the  Court,  with  fifteen 
hundred  knights.  Edward  saw  that  he  had  gone  too  far 
in  his  rash  impulsiveness ;  and  he  is  represented  as 
making  what  was  tantamount  to  a  public  apology,  "  with 
tears  in  his  eyes."  A  bold  justification  or  a  frank 
acknowledgment  always  sufficed  to  mollify  his  wrath  and 
to  disarm  his  resentment.  He  suffered  the  matter  to 
pass  the  more  readily,  because  his  presence  was  urgently 
required  on  the  Continent.  But  the  spirit  of  resistance 
could  not  be  allayed.  His  son,  the  Prince  of  Wales,  was 
left  as  Regent,  and  the  Council  appointed  to  advise  him, 
alarmed  at  the  state  of  affairs  in  the  country,  convened  a 
Parliament  in  October,  1297.  The  two  recalcitrant  Earls 
and  their  adherents  then  demanded  a  general  Confirma- 
tion of  the  Charters,  with  the  addition  of  the  omitted 
clauses  from  the  original,  whereby  the  right  of  taxation 
without  consent  was  renounced  by  the  monarch.  It  was 
explicitly  declared  that  late  illegal  levies  of  money  and 
troops  should  not  be  drawn  into  a  precedent  to  the  hurt 
of  the  kingdom.  In  particular,  the  exaction  of  forty 
shillings  a  sack  on  wool  was  stigmatized  as  an  "  evil  toll," 
and  was  expressly  forbidden  for  the  future.  A  Statute 
was  passed,  embodying  the  above  provisions  ;  with  one 
against  the  imposition  of  arbitrary  Customs'  dues.  Prince 
Edward  engaged  to  procure  a  ratification  from  his  father  ; 
who  judged  it  politic  to  seal  the  new  Confirmation 
Charter  at  Ghent  on  November  5,  1297.  Sheriffs  were 
ordered  to  read  this  four  times  in  every  year  in  their 
county  courts.  Copies  were  to  be  placed  in  every 
cathedral,  and    to    be    read    there  publicly  twice    a   year 


A.D.  1272-1307.]   CONFIRMATION  CHARTER.  283 

On  his  return  to  England,  Edward  was  required  to 
renew  this  ;  which  was  solemnly  done  in  Parliament  on 
March  8,  1299.  This  virtually  settled  the  question  that 
the  government  of  England  rested,  not  with  the  monarch 
alone,  but  in  conjunction  with  the  Parliament.  However 
much  he  chafed,  he  deemed  it  impolitic  to  resist.  Even 
a  Papal  dispensation  from  his  oath,  secretly  obtained, 
was  not  promulgated  during  his  lifetime  ;  though  found 
subsequently  among  the  royal  archives. 

Edward  I.  was  several  times  involved  in  disputes  with 
the  clergy,  whose  great  and  dangerous  power  he 
effectually  curbed.  He  was  devout,  after  the  fashion 
of  his  day,  a  munificent  founder  of  churches,  and  an 
enthusiastic  Crusader ;  but  he  was  also,  as  monarch,  heir 
to  rights  which  he  would  not  surrender,  and  to  duties 
from  which  he  would  not  swerve.  The  old  struggle 
between  King  and  prelates  again  broke  out,  which  had 
been  waged  with  such  fierceness  between  William  I.  and 
Lanfranc ;  between  William  Rufus  and  Henry  I.  and 
Anselm  ;  and  between  Henry  H.  and  Becket.  Arch- 
bishop Winchelsey  was  the  ablest  prelate  who  had  filled 
the  See  of  Canterbury  (1293-13 13)  since  the  great 
Cardinal  Langton.  His  masterful  nature  could  not 
brook  the  control  exerted  by  a  monarch  who  was  as 
masterful.  The  relations  became  strained  ;  and,  though 
no  open  rupture  occurred,  Winchelsey  withdrew  to  the 
Continent  until  the  death  of  Edward.  Throughout  his 
reign  there  had  been  disputes  with  regard  to  the 
temporalities  and  to  the  supremacy.  The  Church  had 
become  possessed  of  vast  landed  property,  left  to  churches, 
chantry  chapels,  abbeys,  and  to  particular  places  by  dying 
persons,  in  order  to  purchase  Masses  for  the  repose  of 
their  souls.  It  was  known  that  the  clergy,  of  all  ranks 
and  orders,  both  Regulars  and  Seculars,  who  numbered 
at  least  forty  thousand,  out  of  a  population  of  not  more 
than  two  millions  and  a  half,  often  used  their  influence, 
especially  with  women,  to  induce  them  thus  to  bccjucath 
their  property  to  pious  uses. 

As  it  seemed  likely  that  the  danger  of  this  absorption 
of  land  would  increase,  to  the  impoverishment  of  all 
landowners,  and  especially  of  the  Crown  rights,  Edward 
and  his  nobles  resolved  to  check    it   by  the  Statute  Di 


284  DISPUTES  WITH  THE  CLERGY,  [chap.  xvil. 

licligiosis,  or,  as  it  is  commonly  called,  the  Statute  of 
Mortmain;  i.e.,  "in  a  dead  hand."  Passed  in  1279,  it 
is  the  first  of  a  long  series  of  such  enactments  made 
during  the  next  five  hundred  years.  It  was  the  em- 
phatic and  defiant  reply  to  certain  Canons  made  in  a 
Church  Council  convened  at  Reading  by  Archbishop 
Peckham,  who  iilled  the  See  of  Canterbury  from  1279 
to  1292.  He  had  to  make  full  and  humble  retractation 
in  Parliament.  Never  was  enactment  more  unpopular 
with  the  class  against  which  it  was  aimed.  It  forbade 
gifts  and  alienations  of  the  above  kind,  under  penalty 
of  forfeiture  ;  but  was  often  eluded  by  subtle  devices  of 
the  ecclesiastical  lawyers,  who  employed  their  ingenuity 
10  circumvent  the  Legislature,  chiefly  in  the  interest  of 
Monasteries,  whose  inmates  could  well  afford  to  pay  for 
legal  quips  and  quirks.  They  also  brought  sham  actions 
for  the  recovery  of  property,  under  pretence  of  a  legal 
right,  and  by  means  of  secret  contracts  and  bribes,  they 
induced  the  real  owners  not  to  appear :  thus  gaining 
judgment  by  default.  Another  Statute,  De  Do7iis,  was 
passed  in  1285,  to  prevent  this.  It  protected  reversion- 
ary estates,  and,  incidentally,  established  a  system  of 
entails.  One  of  its  clauses  gives  curious  proof  of  the 
evasions  practised,  by  setting  up  crosses  on  tenements, 
as  if  they  were  devoted  to  the  Church  ;  in  the  same  way 
as  the  Jews  in  the  time  of  Christ  employed  Corban,  or 
a  gift,  in  order  to  evade  filial  obligations. 

Another  cunning  scheme  was  the  creation  of  charges 
and  annuities,  and,  subsequently,  the  acquisition  of  the 
great  tithes.  Eleven  years  later,  in  1296,  Edward  I.  had 
a  more  serious  dispute  with  the  clergy.  In  obedience  to 
a  Bull  from  Pope  Boniface  VIII.,  they  refused  to  tax 
themselves  for  the  expenses  of  the  kingdom.  Archbishop 
Winchelsey  plainly  told  the  King  that  they  were  more 
subject  to  the  Pope  than  to  him.  Edward  was  not  afraid 
of  any  Pope,  and  would  not  permit  the  clergy  to  defy 
him,  and  to  withhold  their  due  proportion  of  the  expenses 
of  government.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Pope  was  le- 
solved  to  maintain  at  its  highest  pitch  the  tone  of  defiance 
which  former  Pontiffs  had  taken.  In  his  Bull,  he  forbade 
the  clergy  anywhere  to  pay  secular  taxes;  declared  th.u 
no    layman    had    power    over    ecclesiasti'.al    persons   o\ 


A.D.  1272-1307.]    THEY  ARE  OUTLAWED.  2S5 

property ;  and  threatened  excommunication  against  all 
princes,  nobles,  and  their  ofificers  who  demanded  or  took 
such  taxes.  Behind  all  this  was  the  old  claim  ;  not 
always  explicitly  avowed,  but  perfectly  understood. 
Church  authority  pretended  to  be  not  only  independent 
of  the  civil  power,  but  to  be  supreme.  Assumptions 
Were  made  that  struck  at  the  root  of  society.  The 
challenge  was  instantly  accepted.  Justly  enraged  with 
the  clergy,  Edward  took  bold  ground.  He  was  as 
determined  as  William  I.,  or  any  of  his  predecessors,  to 
maintain  the  absolute  supremacy  of  the  Crown,  and  to 
transmit  it  unimpaired.  He  said  that  those  who  would 
not  contribute  to  the  support  or  defence  of  the  country 
were  not  entitled  to  protection,  and  that  if  the  clergy 
would  not  perform  the  duties  of  subjects,  they  should  not 
enjoy  any  rights  and  privileges  as  such.  They  were 
therefore  declared  in  a  state  of  outlawry.  This  deprived 
them  of  the  power  to  seek  redress  for  any  wrongs.  In 
the  technical  but  expressive  phraseology  of  the  time,  they 
were  "  put  out  of  the  King's  peace."  Any  persons  might 
cheat  them  or  assault  them  with  impunity.  The  courts 
of  law  were  closed  against  them.  No  one  dared  protect 
them.  Their  goods  were  declared  forfeited  to  the  Crown. 
Tenants  might  reiuse  to  pay  rent,  and  it  could  not  be 
enforced.  Debtors  might  defy  them.  They  were  openly 
insulted  and  robbed.  Even  the  Archbishop  was  attacked 
on  the  highway  and  stripped.  No  redress  could  be  ob- 
tained for  the  most  violent  injuries. 

Such  resolute  policy  on  the  part  of  the  King  surprised 
and  alarmed  the  clergy.  Edward  was  resolute  that  they 
should  have  no  privileges  incompatible  with  civil  order 
and  the  common  rights  of  the  whole  realm.  In  his  view, 
the  monarch  was  as  truly  the  Lord's  Anointed  as  any 
bishop  or  abbot.  One  result  was  an  enormous  increase 
of  his  own  power  in  Church  and  State.  The  country 
also  gained,  in  an  adjustment  of  its  relations  with  Rome, 
which  continued  until  the  Reformation,  and  the  political 
effects  of  which  still  abide.  To  threaten  such  a  man 
with  spiritual  censures  was  idle.  His  hand  was  heavy 
upon  the  clergy.  They  had  tried  conclusions  with  him, 
and  were  signally  and  ignominiously  worsted.  His 
demand  now  took  the  form,  not  of  a  Subsidy,  but  of  a 


286  DISPUTES  WITH  THE  CLERGY,  [chap.  xvii. 

fine  amounting  to  a  confiscation  of  all  their  property, 
ri'hey  were  much  perplexed;  and  knew  not  what  to  do 
By  obeying  the  Pope,  they  had  angered  the  King.  If 
they  placated  him  by  absolute  submission,  they  would 
incur  the  displeasure  of  Rome.  They  must  resist  one  of 
the  two.  A  division  arose  among  them.  Those  who 
had  most  to  lose,  privately  made  their  peace.  One  by 
one,  bishops  and  abbots  went  to  Castle  Acre,  in  Norfolk, 
where  Edward  then  was,  and  submitted  to  the  hard  terms. 
They  had  to  pay  heavy  fines,  or  to  find  pledges  for  the 
payment,  before  the  sentence  of  outlawry  was  taken  off. 
AV'inchelsey  alone  held  out,  and  his  estates  and  property 
were  seized ;  until  even  he  was  wearied  into  submission. 
The  clergy  received  such  a  scare  that  henceforth,  with 
occasional  outbursts  on  the  part  of  the  more  fiery,  they 
proved  as  docile  as  they  had  been  refractory.  For  the 
first  time  for  two  centuries  they  were  made  effectually  to 
submit  to  the  operation  of  law.  The  example  thus  set 
was  copied  and  extended  by  Henry  the  Eighth. 

Four  years  afterwards,  Boniface  VIII.  had  another 
severe  check.  Thomas  Walsingham,  writing  in  his 
Chronicle,  a  century  later,  of  the  year  1300,  says  that 
the  Scots,  "knowing  all  things  to  be  saleable  at  Rome, 
sent  over  rich  presents  to  the  Pope,"  that  he  might  stay 
the  King  of  England  in  his  proceedings  against  them. 
The  Papal  Court  was  always  ready  to  assert  some  new 
claim  to  power,  or  to  revive  old  or  disputed  claims. 
Boniface  dispatched  a  Bull  to  Winchelsey,  to  be  delivered 
in  person  to  the  King,  who  was  then  besieging  Carlave- 
rock.  He  was  ordered  to  abstain  from  all  further  pro- 
ceedings against  Scotland,  "which  did  and  doth  still  belong 
in  full  right  to  the  Church  of  Rome."  Instead  of  giving 
an  instant  reply,  although  his  mind  must  have  been  fully 
made  up,  he  issued  writs  for  a  Parliament  to  be  held  in 
Lincoln,  in  January,  1301.  It  is  memorable  as  being  the 
first  occasion  of  a  positive  assertion  on  the  part  of  an 
English  Legislature  of  independence  of  the  Papal  power. 
Consentaneously,  as  has  been  already  pointed  out,  a 
similar  assertion  was  being  made  in  France  against  an 
identical  claim.  The  result  of  the  gathering  was  a 
famous  letter  addressed  to  the  Pope ;  sealed  by  one 
hundred   and   four   barons   in    the   name   of    the    entire 


A.D.  1272-1307.]   FOREIGN  ECCLESIASTICS.  287 

commonalty ;  protesting  against  his  interference  in  the 
temporal  concerns  of  the  kingdom.  The  words  of  the 
protest  were  subsequently  embodied  in  the  Statute  of 
Provisors  of  1350  (see  Chapter  XXV).  Edward,  firmly 
rejecting  the  claim,  would  not  even  send  commissioners 
to  Rome  to  discuss  it,  as  he  had  been  enjoined  in  the 
Papal  Bull.  Probably  he  never  thought  of  questioning 
the  Pope's  spiritual  power ;  but  his  own  clear  intellect 
enabled  him  to  see  through  the  designs  of  the  clergy. 
When  he  "  felt  himself  to  be  in  the  right,"  as  he  once 
told  VVinchelsey,  he  was  "  ready  to  go  to  the  death  "  in 
its  defence. 

In  a  Parliament  held  at  Carlisle  in  1307,  the  last  year 
of  his  reign,  complaints  were  again  made  of  the  fpreign 
ecclesiastics,  similar  to  those  which  had  been  heard  during 
the  reign  of  Henry  III.  The  English  of  those  times  had 
no  love  for  foreigners.  Favours  and  preferences  shown, 
led  to  their  being  cordially  detested ;  whether  they  were 
merchants,  enjoying  lucrative  monopolies,  purchased 
from  needy  monarchs  at  the  expense  of  the  natives ;  or 
captains  of  mercenaries  ready  to  fight  and  murder  for  a 
consideration  at  a  moment's  notice ;  or  Papal  nominees 
to  rich  ecclesiastical  offices.  Nor  was  this  mere  insular 
jealousy  and  prejudice.  The  dislike  was  justified  by  the 
conduct  of  most  of  these  favoured  foreigners  ;  who  looked 
upon  England  as  a  rich  country  awaiting  plunder ;  and 
then  derided  its  people  whom  they  had  fleeced.  There 
were  also  in  England  various  bodies  of  Italian  merchants 
and  money-lenders,  known  as  Pope's  Companies,  who 
acted  as  agents  for  Rome  in  collecting  the  above  dues. 
The  clergy  were  driven  to  borrow  of  these  men,  at  high 
rates  of  interest,  in  order  to  meet  their  demands  on  be- 
half of  the  Pope  ;  and  thus  they  reaped  a  double  harvest. 

After  careful  inquiry  into  these  and  similar  grievances, 
Parliament  declared  that  they  should  no  longer  be  per- 
mitted. The  Nuncio  was  ordered  not  to  do  anything  of 
the  kind,  either  personally  or  by  deputy.  He  was  also 
forbidden  to  send  away  any  of  the  money  which  had  been 
collected,  until  the  royal  pleasure  was  known.  These 
measures  had  some  effect  in  abating  the  evils,  but  they 
were  too  deeply  rooted  to  be  wholly  removed  at  that 
time.     The  craft  of  the  clergy,  and  their  sway  over  the 


288  SCOTTISH  AFFAIRS.         [chap,  xviii. 

fears  and  the  prejudices  of  men,  enabled  them  to  evade, 
if  not  to  defy,  the  laws.  During  later  reigns,  the  Statute 
of  Mortmain  and  similar  enactments  were  made  more 
sweeping  and  severe;  but  not  until  the  Reformation  in 
the  sixteenth  century  did  ecclesiastical  power  in  England 
receive  a  fatal  blow.  Edward  I.,  as  a  true  patriot-King, 
deserves  grateful  remembrance  for  the  manner  in  which 
he  curbed  an  intolerable  clerical  despotism.  By  the 
appointment  of  Legates,  the  Popes  sought  to  establish  in 
each  kingdom  a  representative  of  their  supreme  jurisdic- 
tion. Successive  monarchs  of  England  struggled  against 
it.  with  the  avowed  or  implied  appeals  to  Rome  ;  pro- 
hibiting them,  and  also  forbidding  the  introduction  of 
Legates  without  express  leave.  The  latter  difficulty  was 
usually  surmounted  by  appointing  the  Archbishops  to 
the  office ;  which  often  gave  rise  to  doubts  as  to  whether 
certain  acts  were  performed  in  the  capacity  of  Primate  or 
of  Legate.  The  practice  of  appeals  to  Rome  lasted  until 
the  Reformation,  with  incessant  protests,  and  assertions 
of  national  independence,  by  restrictions  to  such  matters 
as  testamentary  and  matrimonial  business.  Besides  the 
Statutes  expressly  passed  to  limit  the  power  of  the  ecclesi- 
astical courts,  numerous  prohibitions  were  addressed  to 
them  in  specific  cases  by  the  royal  courts. 


CHAPTER  XVIIL 

SCOTTISH    AFFAIRS. 
A.D.   1291-1327. 

One  of  the  chief  political  events  of  the  reign  of  Edward  T. 
was  the  w^ar  with  Scotland,  in  his  attempt  to  subjugate  that 
country.  Historians  have  greatly  differed  in  opinion  as 
to  his  motives  and  conduct ;  the  opinion  being  largely 
influenced  by  national  predilections.  Moreover,  the 
Highlanders  were  as  distinct  from  the  Lowlanders  as  the 
English  from  the  Welsh,  and  this  is  the  key  to  much  of 
Scottish  history.  On  the  one  side  is  an  alleged  feudal 
"commendation"    of  Scotland  to   England;    strenuously 


A.D.  1 29 1  - 1 327.]  NA  TIONAL  PREJUDICES.  289 

maintained  by  Freeman  and  others  ;  but  as  strenuously 
denied  by  Hill  Burton  and  those  who  adopt  the  contrary 
view.  It  seems  hopeless  to  settle  this  question.  English 
writers  praise  the  boldness,  the  skill,  and  the  valour 
shown  by  Edward  I.  ;  and  justify  his  claim  to  be  the 
feudal  lord  of  Scotland.  On  the  other  hand,  Scottish 
writers  charge  him  with  fraud  and  cruelty,  and  with  a 
subversion  of  their  national  rights  and  liberties.  It  does 
not  follow  that  those  who  have  taken  opposite  sides  in 
such  conflicts  of  opinion  are  either  wholly  right  or  wholly 
wrong.  Partisanship  and  prejudice  unconsciously  give 
a  local  colouring.  The  following  facts  are  certain. 
Margaret,  sister  of  Eadgar  yEtheling,  married  Malcolm 
Canmore,  King  of  Scotland.  For  more  than  two  hun- 
dred years  their  descer.dants  occupied,  in  a  loose  sense, 
the  throne  of  that  country.  Henry  I.  of  England 
married  Matilda  of  Scotland ;  and  an  illusory  homage, 
with  vague  reservations,  was  paid  to  England  down  to 
the  time  of  Richard  I.,  who,  with  his  willingness  to  sell 
anything  and  everything,  bartered  away  the  supposea 
right  for  a  money  payment.  Alexander  III.  was  but 
nine  years  of  age  when  the  death  of  his  father,  in  1249, 
placed  him  upon  the  Scottish  throne.  Two  years'  later, 
he  was  married  to  Margaret,  daughter  of  Henry  III. 
Alexander,  who  was  one  of  the  ablest  of  the  Scottish 
kings,  died  in  1286,  and  the  last  descendant  of  his  house 
was  a  grand-daughter,  known  as  the  Maid  of  Norway  ; 
the  only  child  of  his  daughter  and  of  Eric,  King  of 
Norway.  It  was  proposed,  in  accordance  with  the  usual 
method  of  barter  and  sale  in  royal  marriages,  that  she 
should  be  united  to  the  Prince  of  Wales,  eldest  son  of 
Edward  I.  ;  but  she  sickened  and  died  on  her  voyage 
home.  Then  various  great  barons  in  Scotland  began  to 
intrigue  for  their  own  interests.  Several  competitors 
appeared  for  the  vacant  throne ;  resting  their  claims  on 
different  degrees  of  kinship  to  the  royal  line,  as  the 
direct  heirs  were  extinct.  A  dark  cloud  loomed  over 
the  country  ;  threatening  to  break  in  all  the  horrors  of 
civil  war.  It  was  then  agreed  to  refer  the  dispute  to 
Edward  I. 

On   May  10,  1291,  he  met  most  of  the  rival  claimants 
and  many  of  the  Scottish  nobles  at  Norham-on-Tweed. 
21 


290 


SCOTTISH  AFFAIRS.  [chap,  xviii. 


liefore  proceeding  in  the  matter,  he  demanded  an  admis- 
sion of  his  feudal  authority.  He  would  not  accept  the 
position  of  judge  until  this  was  conceded.  It  was  done, 
very  reluctantly,  after  an  interval  of  three  weeks.  The 
nine  competitors  also  agreed  to  abide  by  his  decision  as 
Lord-Paramount.  Commissioners  were  named  to  con- 
sider and  report  on  the  various  claims.  The  contest  lay 
chiefly  between  Robert  Bruce,  Lord  of  Annandale,  and 
John  Baliol,  or  Balliol,  Lord  of  Galloway.  Both  were 
of  Norman  lineage,  and  both  belonged  to  side  branches 
of  the  royal  family  of  Scotland,  through  David,  Earl  of 
Huntingdon,  great-uncle  of  Alexander  IIL  Baliol  was 
grandson  of  the  Earl's  eldest  daughter  ;  and  Bruce  was 
•^on  of  the  second  daughter.  After  frequent  meetings, 
conducted  in  due  form,  and  properly  recorded,  and  after 
diligent  search  among  cathedral  and  monastic  Chronicles, 
Edward  gave  judgment,  November  17,  1292,  in  favour  of 
Baliol ;  who  swore  fealty  to  him,  and  was  crowned  at  Scone. 
Amidst  all  the  selfish  squabbles,  the  family  intrigues, 
and  the  feudal  pleadings  upon  the  matter,  there  is  no 
reference  to  the  rights  and  well-being  of  the  Scottisl;i 
people,  and  no  account  seems  to  have  been  taken  of  the 
manner  in  which  the  decision  might  affect  them.  So 
far  as  appears  from  the  language  of  existing  documents, 
nothing  was  thought  of  the  wishes,  the  feelings,  and  the 
interests  of  that  fierce  and  self-willed  race,  nourished  in 
national  pride  and  independence,  whose  spirit  must  be 
bent  or  broken  before  the  claims  of  the  King  of  England 
would  be  admitted.  It  is  clear  that  a  majority  of  the 
nobles  and  prelates  were  inclined  to  prefer  Baliol  as  the 
lawful  heir.  Bruce  and  his  friends,  forming  a  minority, 
appealed  to  Edward  because  they  felt  their  own  weakness. 
In  order  to  secure  his  favour  and  support,  they  were 
willing  to  relinquish  the  independence  of  their  country. 
He  listened  to  them,  as  far  as  suited  his  own  interest ; 
and  having  obtained  the  admission  of  his  over-lordship, 
he  seems  to  have  acted  fairly.  His  decision  was  just  , 
for  Baliol  had  certainly  the  stronger  claim  of  kinship. 
What  Edward  did  in  this  matter  is  distinct  from  his 
policy  in  his  later  wars  with  Scotland ;  which  were 
entered  upon  to  enforce  a  tissue  of  absurd  legal  cobwebs, 
spun  by  feudal  pedants. 


A.D.  1291-1327-]         JOHN  BALIOL.  291 

To  obtain  a  Crown,  Baliol  consented  to  wear  it  as  a 
vassal.  He  soon  repented  of  the  condition.  Suitors 
appealed  from  his  Courts  to  those  of  Edward,  as  Hege- 
lord.  Troubles  arose  among  his  powerful  nobles  ;  so 
lately  his  equals.  He  chafed  beneath  his  state  of  splendid 
vassalage.  In  an  evil  hour  he  was  persuaded  to  make  a 
secret  treaty  with  Philip  IV.  of  France ;  then  engaged 
in  a  quarrel  with  Edward  I.  respecting  his  Continental 
dominions.  This  was  the  beginning  of  a  policy  which 
excited  so  malign  an  influence  for  three  hundred  years ; 
France  and  Scotland  being  frequently  united  in  intrigue 
against  England.  Such  a  treaty  could  not  long  be  kept 
secret ;  and  as  Baliol  either  could  not  or  would  not 
respond  to  his  feudal  superior's  call  for  assistance  in  the 
war  then  pending  with  France,  Edward  resolved  to 
punish  him.  An  army  of  thirty  thousand  foot  and  of 
five  thousand  horse  was  assembled ;  but,  meanwhile, 
Bahol  had  become  a  puppet  and  a  virtual  prisoner  in  the 
hands  of  his  turbulent  barons.  They  set  out  in  1296, 
with  a  great  force  of  retainers,  to  meet  the  English. 
Then  ensued  battles,  sieges,  and  raids ;  with  horrible 
murders,  cruelty,  and  plunder  on  both  sides ;  but 
especially,  and  in  the  first  place,  by  the  Scots.  The 
English  besieged  and  took  Berwick,  Dunbar,  Edin- 
burgh, and  Stirling,  and  proceeded  to  Perth,  where 
messengers  arrived  from  Baliol,  announcing  his  sub- 
mission. He  had  to  resign  his  Crown,  and  was  sent, 
with  his  son,  to  the  Tower  of  London,  where  they 
remained  three  years,  but  with  leave  to  travel  for 
twenty  miles  around.  They  were  supplied  with  money, 
and  with  a  retinue  suited  to  their  rank.  He  was  after- 
wards allowed  to  retire  to  his  family  estates  in  Normandy, 
where  he  died.  Baliol  was  significantly  called  Toom 
Tabard,  or  Empty  Jacket ;  but  he  is  perhaps  more  to  be 
pitied  than  blamed  for  his  inability  to  control  his  rough 
and  fierce  nobles,  who  used  him  as  they  chose.  His 
family  name  is  perpetuated  in  Balliol  College,  Oxford  ; 
founded  by  his  father  between  1263  and  1268,  and  largely 
enriched  by  subsequent  benefactors.  John  Wycliffe  was 
its  Master,  in  1361,  and  John  Evelyn,  James  Bradley, 
the  astronomer,  and  Sir  William  Hamilton,  figure 
among    its    renowned    scholars.     After    Baliol's    resigna- 


292  SCOTTISH  AFFAIRS.         [chap,  xviii. 

tion,  Edward  appointed  Warrenne,  Earl  of  Surrey,  to 
be  Guardian  of  Scotland,  with  an  English  Treasurer  and 
a  Justiciary.  The  four  strong  castles  of  Berwick,  Rox- 
burgh, Jedburgh,  and  Edinburgh,  besides  those  already 
held,  were  entrusted  to  English  garrisons.  Every  tiling 
was  done  to  give  proper  security ;  but  no  wanton  rigour 
was  exercised,  nor  were  needless  changes  made  in  the 
customs  and  laws  of  the  people.  The  Stone  of  Destiny 
was  removed  from  Scone,  and  placed  beneath  the  corona- 
tion chair  in  Westminster  Abbey,  where  it  still  remains. 
If  the  tradition  that  wherever  it  rested  the  Scots  would 
possess  the.  dominant  power,  be  supposed  to  have  fulfil- 
ment in  the  Stuart  dynasty,  a  curse  was  entailed  upon 
England.  Edward  returned  to  the  South,  to  prepare  for 
a  more  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war  with  France, 
which  had  been  carried  on  at  the  same  time,  with  the 
object  of  recovering  Gascony.  It  does  not  appear  whether 
he  thought  that  Scotland  was  really  subdued.  Probably 
he  hoped  to  absorb  it  gradually  into  England ;  as  had 
been  the  case  with  Wales,  If  this  could  have  been 
effected  amicably,  and  with  the  full  consent  of  the 
people,  an  untold  amount  of  suffering,  bloodshed,  and 
ill-will  might  have  been  avoided.  During  his  absence 
on  the  Continent,  events  occurred  in  Scotland  to  cause 
him  much  anxiety,  and  he  was  glad  to  consent  to  a  truce 
for  two  years  with  the  King  of  France,  in  order  to  be 
able  to  devote  his  attention  to  this  troublesome  matter. 
Just  at  this  time,  William  Wallace  (i 270-1305)  sud- 
denly appears  upon  the  scene ;  to  disappear  as  suddenly, 
after  a  meteor-like  course  of  about  fourteen  months.  His 
story,  like  that  of  King  Arthur  or  of  Robin  Hood,  is  so 
surrounded  by  a  haze  of  romance,  that  it  is  hard  to 
distinguish  the  facts  of  his  life  from  the  fictions  that 
have  crystallized  around  it.  The  songs  of  later  Scottish 
bards,  and  such  fictions  as  Jane  Porter's  '  Scottish  Chiefs,' 
have  made  him  the  hero  of  a  War  for  National  Indepen- 
dence. Robert  Burns  wrote  his  "Scots  wha  hae  wi' 
Wallace  bled,"  to  an  old  and  popular  air,  called  "Hey 
tuttie  taittie."  But  the  Wallace  of  history  and  the 
Wallace  of  tradition  are  distinct  persons.  Many  of  the 
romantic  tales  concerning  him  never  appeared  in  written 
form    until    the    days    of    Blind    Harry    the    Minstrel, 


A.D.  1291-1327.]  WALLACE.  293 

nearly  two  centuries  later.  Wallace  gathered  a  small 
company  of  freebooters,  whose  successes  made  them 
bold  and  induced  others  to  join  them.  He  never  had 
the  bulk  of  the  people  on  his  side,  and  the  nobles  and 
gentry,  with  a  {e^  exceptions,  kept  aloof;  whatever  they 
may  have  done  subsequently  under  Bruce.  He  led 
his  followers  into  Northumberland,  and  in  the  course 
of  a  few  weeks  reduced  the  district  to  the  condition  of  a 
desert  by  fire  and  sword.  Houses  and  cottages  were  first 
plundered  and  then  burned.  Cattle,  horses,  sheep,  and 
grain  were  seized.  Property  that  was  not  portable  was 
wantonly  destroyed.  Neither  rank  nor  sex,  neither  age 
nor  infancy,  was  spared.  Sir  Walter  Scott  says  of  this 
robber-raid: — "Increasing  his  forces  that  he  might 
gratify  them  with  plunder,  Wallace  led  them  across 
the  English  border,  and  sweeping  it  lengthwise  from 
Newcastle  to  the  gates  of  Carlisle,  he  left  nothing 
behind  him  but  blood  and  ashes."  Such  atrocities 
continued  at  intervals  throughout  the  fourteen  months 
of  his  active  leadership.  The  tidings  reached  Edward 
fis  he  was  about  to  leave  for  Flanders.  He  ordered  the 
Earl  of  Surrey  to  call  out  the  feudal  force  North  of  the 
Trent,  and  march  against  the  insurgents.  That  noble- 
man was  so  unfortunate  as  to  sustain  a  defeat  in  the 
Battle  of  Cambuskenneth,  near  Stirling,  on  September 
12,  1297;  owing  to  his  own  rashness.  It  struck  terror 
into  the  English  garrisons,  who  gave  up  their  castles. 
Wallace  assumed  the  title  of  Governor  of  Scotland. 
Edward  instantly  made  a  truce  with  France,  and  sent 
over  Writs  to  convene  a  Parliament  at  York  on  January 
14,  1298,  and  ordered  his  entire  military  force  to  meet 
him  there.  Eighty  thousand  soldiers  and  seven  thou- 
sand horsemen  responded.  He  forced  Wallace  to  a  battle 
near  Falkirk,  July  22,  1298,  in  which  it  was  stated  that 
fifteen  thousand  Scots  fell.  This  ended  his  active 
career.  He  rose  into  sudden  celebrity  by  his  victory  at 
Stirling  in  September,  1297,  and  he  fell  as  suddenly  into 
disgrace  and  contempt  by  his  defeat  at  Falkirk  in  the 
following  July.  A  desultory  local  warfare  was  kept  up 
in  Scotlajid  for  four  or  five  years  after  this,  in  which  his 
talents  might  have  proved  of  use;  but  not  once  is  he 
heard  of.      He  escaped  to  France  with  five  followers. 


294  SCOTTISH  AFFAIRS.         [chap,  xviii. 

Edward  marched  to  Stirling,  which  had  been  burned ; 
and  sent  troops  into  the  surrounding  districts  before  he 
returned  through  Clydesdale,  Galloway,  and  Annandale 
to  Carlisle,  where  a  Parliament  was  held  at  Easter, 
1299.  The  leading  Scottish  nobles  tendered  their  sub- 
mission, but  his  scheme  for  uniting  the  two  countries 
could  not  then  be  carried  out.  He  had  other  things  to 
attend  to,  both  in  England  and  abroad.  He  was  also, 
ior  politic  reasons,  about  to  marry  a  second  time  ;  his 
bride  being  Margaret,  the  sister  of  King  Philip  IV.  of 
France;  a  child  of  twelve  years  of  age,  and  forty-three 
years  younger  than  himself.  Alternate  gains  and  losses 
marked  the  course  of  the  next  three  years,  during  which 
the  South  of  Scotland  had  to  endure  all  the  horrors  of 
predatory  warfare.  In  1303,  Edward  again  marched 
thither,  at  the  head  of  a  large  and  well-appointed  army ; 
resolved,  if  possible,  to  end  the  strife  at  once  and  for 
ever.  Scotland  was  in  a  state  of  anarchy.  Her  people 
were  divided  ;  her  nobles  were  factious  ;  misrule,  murder, 
and  plunder  prevailed.  Such  a  neighbour  was  dangerous 
to  the  peace  of  England,  and  Edward  thought  it  de- 
sirable and  possible  to  save  Scotland  from  the  results 
of  her  own  disorder  by  annexing  the  country.  It  is  easy 
to  see,  after  the  event,  that  he  was  mistaken  in  his 
methods ;  but  he  must  be  judged  by  the  actual  cir- 
cumstances, and  by  what  he  intended  for  the  best. 

Numerous  barons  and  knights  made  their  peace,  on 
fair  terms.  The  important  Castle  of  Stirling  was  again 
captured,  after  a  long  and  brave  resistance,  Wallace 
returned  to  his  old  haunts,  but  was  seized  in  Glasgow, 
sent  to  London,  tried,  and  executed  in  the  barbarous 
fashion  of  those  times ;  his  dismembered  limbs  being 
exposed  in  the  metropolis,  in  Newcastle,  Berwick, 
Stirling,  and  Perth.  Probably,  as  in  other  cases  of  hero- 
worship  and  of  beatification,  his  violent  death  had  not 
a  little  to  do  with  his  after  fame.  Yet  it  must  be 
remembered  that  he  was  condemned,  not  only,  and  not 
so  much,  for  alleged  treason  and  rebellion — which,  how- 
ever, could  not  be  maintained,  for  he  had  never  sworn 
fealty  to  the  English  King  or  entered  into  any  engage- 
ment with  him— as  for  his  "murders,  depredations, 
arsons,    and    other   divers   (elonies."     This    does    not    re 


A.D.  1291-1327-]         ROBERT  BRUCE.  295 

move  the  blot  that  rests  upon  the  memory  of  England's 
great  King.  To  his  notions  of  knightly  chivalry,  how- 
ever, as  criticised  in  the  twenty-first  Chapter,  Wallace's 
character  and  aims  counted  as  nothing.  He  was  viewed 
merely  as  a  common  robber  and  incendiary.  In  the 
same  false  spirit  of  chivalry,  Edward  I.  had  looked  on 
complacently  at  the  storming  of  Berwick,  in  1296,  when 
nearly  eight  thousand  people — mostly  unarmed  citizens 
— were  slaughtered,  and  some  Flemish  traders  were 
burnt  alive  in  the  Town  Hall,  which  they  refused  to 
surrender. 

A  Great  Council  on  the  affairs  of  Scotland  met  in  the 
Temple,  in  London,  February  16,  1305.  Among  those 
present  were  the  Bishops  of  Glasgow  and  of  St.  Andrew's  ; 
two  Scottish  earls,  one  of  whom  was  Robert  Bruce  (b.  1274, 
r.  1306-1329),  grandson  of  John  Baliol's  rival;  and 
several  barons.  The  sittings  lasted  for  twenty  days,  and 
many  points  were  settled  as  to  the  future  government  of 
the  country.  It  was  to  be  represented  in  English 
Parliaments  by  two  each  of  the  prelates,  abbots,  earls, 
barons,  and  the  commonalty.  It  was  also  agreed  that 
the  King  should  be  represented  in  Scotland  by  a 
Lieutenant,  assisted  by  a  Council  of  Advice.  Provision 
was  made  for  justice  to  be  dispensed,  and  for  good  order 
to  be  preserved.  All  present,  including  Robert  Bruce, 
swore  on  the  Gospels,  for  themselves  and  for  the  whole 
people,  that  the  Ordinances  should  be  faithfully  kept. 
The  view  of  Bruce's  character  presented  by  most  Scottish 
writers  is  one  that  ranks  him  with  Brutus  and  Virginius, 
with  Tell  and  Hofer,  with  Hampden  and  Eliot,  as  a 
consistent  patriot,  an  ardent  lover  of  his  country,  and 
as  one  who  devoted  himself  to  free  her  from  a  foreign 
yoke.  Yet  it  is  admitted  that  he  was  shifty  and  time- 
serving between  the  years  1297  and  1306  ;  sometimes 
joining  for  a  brief  period  with  Wallace  or  with  Comyn 
against  King  Edward,  but  always  leaving  some  loophole 
of  escape.  In  1303,  on  the  death  of  his  father,  he 
succeeded  to  vast  estates,  bpth  in  England  and  in 
Scotland,  and  took  the  usual  oaths  of  fealty  to  Edward. 
He  returned  from  the  Great  Council  in  London  "  with 
great  appearance  of  joy  and  satisfaction " ;  but  within  a 
year  he  was  at  the  head  of  another  revolt.     He  did  not 


2r,6  SCOTTISH  AFFAIRS.  [CHAP.  XVlll. 

commit  himself  to  this  until  he  saw  that  the  failing 
iicalth  of  the  puissant  English  King  would  most  likely 
render  the  attempt  successful.  The  new  outbreak  took 
place  on  February  lo,  1306.  Comyn,  a  powerful  noble, 
who  had  made  his  peace  with  Edward,  was  the  one  who 
could  most  retard  Bruce's  plan  to  obtain  the  Scottish 
crown  for  himself.  He  was  asked  to  meet  Bruce  in 
Dumfries.  A  pretext  for  quarrel  was  found,  and  Comyn 
was  stabbed  by  Bruce,  whose  followers  dispatched  him, 
"  to  make  siccar."  The  only  consistent  explanation  of 
this  crime — then  regarded  as  pecuUarly  atrocious  because 
committed  during  a  friendly  conference,  and  in  a  church 
— is  that  as  Bruce  had  resolved  upon  open  resistance,  and 
was  gathering  a  party  around  him,  it  was  convenient  to 
put  Comyn  out  of  the  way  if  he  would  not  join  in  the 
rising.  Yet  the  enterprise  seemed  mad  and  hopeless. 
Only  two  earls  and  fourteen  barons  embarked  with  him 
in  the  attempt.  The  great  and  powerful  party  of  the 
Comyns  were  alienated  by  the  murder.  Most  of  the 
nobles,  having  suffered  so  much  in  the  late  wars,  would 
not  risk  another  attempt.  Certainly  it  was  not  at  the 
call  of  the  nation  that  Robert  Bruce  took  up  arms  against 
the  English ;  whatever  popular  feeling  was  afterwards 
evoked  by  his  success.  He  was  hastily  crowned  at 
Scone,  March  27,  1306,  in  order  to  inspire  his  followers 
and  to  give  some  official  colour  to  his  movement. 

Edward  acted  with  his  usual  boldness,  skill,  and 
promptitude.  Aymer  de  Valence,  Earl  of  Pembroke, 
was  sent  to  Scotland  as  Governor.  On  the  nineteenth 
of  June,  he  won  the  Battle  of  Methven ;  in  which 
Bruce's  followers  were  utterly  routed.  Their  leader 
became  a  wanderer  and  an  outcast  for  ten  months. 
Edward  would  not  accept  his  proffered  submission ; 
regarding  him  as  a  traitor  and  a  sacrilegious  murderer. 
Though  suffering  from  the  illness  which  proved  fatal,  he 
journeyed  by  slow  stages  to  Carlisle,  where  a  Parliament 
assembled  for  various  matters  of  urgent  business.  Bruce 
came  forth  from  his  retirement  in  the  Spring  of  1307, 
and  numerous  skirmishes  took  place,  but  the  rising  was 
far  from  being  national.  The  great  Scottish  lords  still 
held  aloof  from  him.  and  his  fortunes  appeared  hopeless, 
until  he  unexpectedly  defeated   the    Earl    of   Pembroke, 


A.D.  1291-1327]  CHARACTER  OF  EDWARD  I.  297 

May  10,  1307,  in  the  Battle  of  Loudon  Hill.  Edward 
resolved  to  advance  into  Scotland  and  take  the  command  ; 
but  his  old  complaint  of  dysentery  was  aggravated,  and 
he  died  at  Burgh-on-the-Sands  on  the  seventh  of  July. 
His  last  hours  were  spent  in  trying  to  impress  upon  his 
son  lessons  of  prudence  and  resolution ;  in  which  he  was 
sadly  lacking.  Edward  urged  him  to  continue  the 
campaign,  and  desired  that  his  own  body  might  be 
carried  at  the  head  of  the  army,  to  inspire  it,  and  to 
terrify  his  foes.  The  body  was  embalmed,  and  was  after- 
wards buried  with  much  pomp  in  the  Chapel  of  Eadward 
the  Confessor  in  Westminster  Abbey.  The  tomb  was 
opened  in  May,  1774,  and  a  description  by  Sir  John 
Ayloffe  is  contained  in  the  third  volume  of  '  Archgeologia,' 
issued  by  the  Society  of  Antiquaries. 

All  writers  on  English  history  admit  that  Edward  I. 
was  a  great  ruler  and  lawgiver:  "with  Atlantean 
shoulders  fit  to  bear  the  weight  of  mightiest  monarchies." 
He  has  been  aptly  styled  by  Sir  J.  R.  Seeley  the  Greatest 
of  the  Plantagenets.  Hume  describes  him  as  "  this 
model  of  a  politic  and  warlike  king "  ;  Mackintosh,  as 
"  this  great  statesman  and  commander  "  ;  and  Scott,  as 
"  the  most  sagacious  and  resolute  of  English  princes." 
In  practical  wisdom,  in  clear  insight,  in  constructive 
ability,  in  strength  of  character,  and  in  a  sense  of  justice, 
he  stands  second  to  none.  He  did  for  this  country  what 
Lycurgus  did  for  Sparta.  The  Chroniclers  laud  him, 
not  only  as  a  mighty  warrior,  but — a  rarer  and  nobler 
characteristic  in  the  Middle  Ages — as  slow  to  engage  in 
war,  and  always  ready  to  make  a  just  peace.  Of  the  lust 
after  military  glory  for  its  own  sake,  he  seems  to  have 
been  wholly  free.  They  also  describe  him  as  firm  and 
sincere  in  friendship ;  personally  economical ;  truly 
devout,  after  the  fashion  of  that  time  ;  a  sagacious  ruler ; 
loyal  to  his  word  ;  and  caring  much  for  the  welfare  of  his 
people.  He  appointed  the  ablest  men  to  offices  of  trust ; 
he  honoured  valour  and  skill,  even  in  opponents,  pro- 
vided only  they  were  fighting  men,  as  the  chivalry  of  the 
time  required  ;  but  he  hated  crime  and  lawlessness,  and 
was  determined  to  put  them  down  with  a  strong  hand. 
His  general  instincts  were  high-minded,  noble,  and 
generous.     His  nature,  like  his  tall,  stately,  active  body, 


2^8  SCOTTISH  AFFAIRS.         [chap.  xvni. 

was  truly  regal ;  but  he  was  also,  in  the  strict  sense,  a 
national  and  popular  monarch.  He  combined  what 
would  have  been  in  any  other  age  an  excessive  regard 
for  prescriptive  rights  and  technical  precedents,  with  a 
love  of  system  and  of  what  may  be  termed  administrative 
martinetism.  The  legality  of  his  mind  was  at  once  his 
strength  and  his  weakness.  To  obey  the  law  became 
a  synonym  for  obedience  to  himself.  His  love  for 
truth  and  justice  amounted  to  a  passion.  Intensely 
in  earnest,  and  convinced  of  the  honour  and  integrity  of 
his  own  ends,  he  often  persuaded  himself  that  what  he 
desired  was  right,  and  that  the  chosen  means  were  the 
best.  He  found  England  priest-ridden,  under  the  old 
struggle  to  subordinate  the  State  to  the  Church,  and  he 
raised  a  barrier  against  clerical  aggrandizement  which 
neither  Pope  nor  priest  could  break  through  or  surmount. 
The  Statute  of  Mortmain  is  the  proof  of  this.  With  the 
sagacity  of  statesmanship  he  discerned  also  that  the  real 
strength  of  England  lay  within  her  four  seas.  Hence  he 
strained  every  nerve  to  incorporate  Wales  and  Scotland 
into  one  monarchy.  The  inscription  placed  upon  his 
tomb  was  said  to  have  been  ordered  by  himself;  and  it 
serves  to  express  one  of  his  own  dominant  charac- 
teristics : — "  Edward  the  First,  the  Hammer  of  Scotland, 
lies  here.  1307.  Keep  your  covenant!"  The  last 
phrase,  Pactuin  serva,  signifies  his  unalterable  deter- 
mination to  do  his  duty,  and  to  compel  every  one  else 
to  do  the  same.  If  the  last  years  of  his  reign  were  less 
glorious,  it  was  because  he  did  not  act  in  the  spirit  of 
the  concessions  involved  in  the  Confirmation  of  the 
Charters,  in  1297  ;  especially  in  the  matter  of  the 
Forests ;  interpreting  the  concessions  in  a  narrow  and 
technical  sense. 

Edward  the  Second  (b.  1284.  r.  1307-13 2 7)  was  in  his 
twenty-third  year  when  he  succeeded  to  the  throne.  He 
received  at  Carlisle  the  homage  of  the  English  nobles 
then  present  with  the  army,  and  of  many  of  the  Scottish 
nobles,  who  did  not  join  with  Robert  Bruce.  Leaving 
the  command  to  the  Earl  of  Pembroke,  he  went  to 
London  in  September,  1307,  to  arrange  for  his  marriage 
and  coronation.  Nine  years  before,  Edward  I.  had  con- 
tracted  his   son    to    Isabella  of  France;  then   only  four 


A.D.  1291-1327.]  SHE-WOLF  OF  FRANCE.  299 

years  old,  daughter  of  Philip  IV.,  and  the  niece  of  his 
own  second  Queen.  So  desirous  was  he  of  this  aUiance, 
that  one  of  his  last  expressed  wishes  was  that  his  heir 
should  carry  out  the  scheme.  This  was  done  at 
Boulogne,  on  January  23,  1308,  with  much  pomp, 
and  in  the  presence  of  four  monarchs.  None  of  that 
gay  company  could  have  thought  that  the  epithet  of 
Sne-Wolf  of  France  would  come  to  be  deserved  by  the 
child-bride  !  Edward  the  Second's  chief  troubles  arose 
from  unwise  favouritism ;  first,  with  Piers  de  Gaveston, 
and  then  with  Hugh  le  Despenser.  The  jealousy  and 
anger  of  the  barons  were  aroused,  and  they  refused  to 
attend  a  Parliament  convened  to  meet  in  York,  in 
October,  1309,  unless  the  favourite  left  the  Court. 
When  the  next  Parliament  assembled,  in  the  follow- 
ing February,  Edward  was  forced  to  consent  to  the 
appointment  of  a  committee  of  twenty-one  peers  and 
prelates,  to  be  called  Lords-Ordainers,  who  were  to 
remain  in  office  until  Michaelmas,  131 1.  They  were 
to  draft  Ordinances  for  the  pretended  good  of  the  realm  ; 
in  conformity  with  the  tenor  of  the  coronation-oath.  In 
effect,  the  administration  of  affairs  passed  into  their 
hands.  It  was  government  by  an  oligarchy ;  with  scanty 
reference  to  Parliament.  The  King  was  practically 
superseded.  He  joined  the  army  in  the  field  against 
Scotland,  and  found  solace  in  Gaveston's  company. 
Meanwhile,  the  Lords-Ordainers  proceeded  with  their 
task.  A  comprehensive  scheme  for  the  professed  reform 
of  government  was  settled  during  the  year ;  in  pre- 
paration for  embodiment  in  a  Statute.  Edward  needed 
money,  and  the  country  desired  a  continuance  of  strong 
government ;  but  he  longed  more  for  the  return  of 
Gaveston  to  England  than  for  the  money.  His  enemies 
were  resolved  to  prevent  this. 

The  famous  Ordinances  of  131 1  consisted  of  forty-one 
clauses.  All  were  aimed  at  prevalent  abuses.  Some  of 
these  were  of  long  standing,  in  spite  of  the  provisions  of 
Magna  Charta  and  its  renewals ;  such  as  the  miscarriage 
and  delay  of  justice,  and  the  misconduct  of  royal  officials. 
Others  referred  to  objectionable  acts  of  policy  at  the 
close  of  the  late  reign  ;  especially  the  duties  levied  upon 
wool,  which  were  declared  to  be  illegal,  as  contrary  to  the 


300  SCOTTISH  AFFAIRS.         [chap,  xvill. 

Great  Charter.  Mention  was  made  of  the  favourite ;  and 
others  were  named  as  siding  with  him.  They  were 
charged  with  having  stolen  the  King's  heart  from  his 
people,  and  with  having  led  him  into  acts  of  tyranny 
and  dishonour.  Their  absolute  banishment  was  specifi- 
cally ordered.  Further  limitations  were  placed  on  the 
royal  power.  All  the  high  officers  of  State  were  to  be 
appointed  in  future  with  the  counsel  of  the  baronage,  and 
were  to  be  sworn  in  Parliament.  The  King  was  not  to 
declare  war  or  to  quit  the  country  without  the  consent  of 
Parliament ;  which  was  to  meet  at  least  annually,  and  to 
hold  the  royal  functionaries  to  strict  account.  These 
Ordinances  were  agreed  to  by  Edward,  after  a  severe 
struggle ;  but  he  soon  renounced  and  repudiated  them. 
On  the  part  of  the  barons,  it  was  a  contest,  not  so  much 
for  principles,  as  against  persons,  and  for  their  own  ad- 
vantage. This  is  proved  by  the  nature  of  most  of  the 
grievances  referred  to,  and  by  the  phraseology  used. 
Hatred  of  Gaveston,  and  a  resolve  to  ruin  him,  were  the 
motives ;  but  complaints  of  wrongs  done  to  great  persons, 
and  needed  restraints  upon  the  King's  movements,  were 
the  assigned  reasons.  The  main  purpose  was  to  set  up 
the  joint  power  of  the  prelates  and  barons,  and  to  rule 
in  the  royal  name.  Popular  sympathy  and  aid  were 
enlisted,  under  the  plea  of  patriotism  ;  yet  it  cannot  be 
denied  that  the  nobles  were  animated  by  jealousy  and 
vindictiveness.  There  is  no  provision  in  these  Ordi- 
nances analogous  to  that  settled  in  former  times ;  that 
the  whole  nation,  through  its  representatives,  the  knights 
and  burgesses,  should  share  in  whatever  duty  was  under- 
taken for  the  purpose  of  securing  good  government.  Yet, 
in  this  case,  as  in  others,  the  ultimate  result  was  an 
extension  of  national  rights ;  for  the  dangerous  power  of 
the  baronage  was  finally  broken  after  the  Wars  of  the 
Roses. 

Affairs  in  Scotland  demanded  notice.  The  English 
force  left  there  had  been  occupied  in  numerous  sieges 
and  skirmishes ;  but  most  of  the  fortresses  taken  under 
Edward  I.  had  been  recaptured.  In  13 14,  only  Stirling, 
Dunbar,  and  Berwick  remained  in  the  hands  of  the 
English.  Stirling  was  so  closely  invested  by  Bruce, 
vvhose  followers  had  greatly  increased  with  his  successes, 


A.D.  1291-1327.]        BANNOCKBURN.  301 

that  *^he  governor  agreed  to  surrender  unless  relief  came 
by  a  certain  day.  Edward  II.  made  great  preparations. 
The  whole  military  force  of  the  kingdom  was  ordered  to 
assemble  at  Berwick,  on  June  11,  1314.  Though  his 
cousin,  the  Earl  of  Lancaster,  and  other  great  barons, 
held  aloof,  on  the  pretence  that  war  could  not  be  com- 
menced without  the  consent  required  under  the  Ordi- 
nances, one  hundred  thousand  men  obeyed  the  call ;  one- 
half  of  whom  were  trained  archers,  renowned  for  their 
skill  with  the  long-bow.  That  weapon  was  then  at  its 
highest  point  of  celebrity.  Every  man,  not  being  a 
knight,  was  required  to  become  proficient.  The  practice 
commenced  with  a  small  bow  in  childhood.  Bruce  could 
muster  only  forty  thousand,  including  a  small  body  of 
cavalry ;  but  he  made  a  skilful  choice  of  position  at 
Bannockburn,  and  there  awaited  the  attack.  On 
Monday,  June  24th,  the  great  and  decisive  battle  was 
fought.  In  spite  of  vast  superiority  in  numbers,  the 
English,  owing  to  bad  generalship,  were  ignominiously 
defeated,  with  terrible  slaughter  and  plunder.  Stirling 
Castle  was  surrendered  the  next  day.  Edward  fied  to 
Dunbar,  and  thence  to  Berwick.  This  battle  practically 
determined  the  question  of  Scotland's  independence, 
although  it  was  not  formally  admitted  until  1323,  when 
a  truce  was  agreed  to  for  thirteen  years.  The  national 
spirit  that  had  been  aroused  by  recent  events  appears  in 
the  famous  Declaration  of  Scottish  Independence,  of 
1320;  the  original  of  which  is  preserved  in  the  Register 
House  at  Edinburgh  : — "  So  long  as  a  hundred  of  us 
remain  in  life,  we  will  never  be  brought  under  the 
dominion  of  the  English ;  for  it  is  not  for  glory,  or 
riches,  or  honour,  that  we  fight,  but  for  freedom  alone ; 
which  no  good  man  will  part  with  except  with  his  life." 

The  disaster  of  Bannockburn  was  followed  by  a 
calamity  which,  apart  from  all  other  considerations,  pre- 
cluded any  attempt  to  retrieve  the  loss.  For  many  years 
the  price  of  grain  had  risen,  owing  to  deficient  harvests 
and  to  the  wasteful  expense  of  the  Scottish  wars ;  but 
actual  famine  appeared  in  13 15-6,  as  a  result  of  a  general 
failure  of  the  crops ;  followed  by  the  inevitable  pestilence, 
and  by  a  murrain  among  the  cattle  and  sheep.  The  first 
of  the  kind  is  recorded  in  1275.     In  London  and  other 


302  SCOTTISH  AFFAIRS.         [chap,  xviir. 

cities  the  dead  were  hastily  buried  in  trenches  and  pits ; 
and  in  the  country  districts  corpses  frequently  lay  by  the 
roadside.  The  poor  were  driven  to  eat  carrion,  and  even 
human  flesh,  as  was  alleged ;  and  the  starving  felons  in 
prison  fell  upon  new  comers.  Temporary  relief  was 
afforded  by  a  royal  edict  that  no  more  grain  should  be 
used  for  malt  until  the  distress  was  past.  The  usual 
attempts  were  made  to  regulate  prices,  which  were 
attended  with  the  usual  failure.  Edward  the  Second 
was  too  much  occupied  with  personal  and  domestic 
affairs  during  the  remainder  of  his  reign,  even  if  the 
famine,  pestilence,  and  murrain  had  not  broken  out,  to 
be  able  to  make  further  attempts  to  recover  Scottish 
territory.  The  country  was  bordering  upcn  anarch}'. 
Rival  factions  among  the  barons  strove  for  supremacy. 
The  Earl  of  Lancaster,  in  particular,  was  intriguing  and 
fighting  for  his  own  aggrandizement.  His  capacity  was 
not  equal  to  his  ambition,  or  to  his  standing  at  the  head 
of  the  peerage.  He  combined  the  Earldoms  of  Derby, 
Lincoln,  Salisbury,  and  Leicester ;  besides  the  one  that 
formed  his  chief  title.  His  greed  of  power  revealed  his 
real  weakness.  At  one  time,  he  would  not  engage  in 
war,  when  summoned ;  thus  distinctly  violating  his 
feudal  duties.  Then  he  would  not  attend  in  his  place 
in  Parliament.  He  would  not  act  with  the  King,  whom 
he  hated,  and  wished  to  see  reduced  to  a  puppet  in  his 
own  hands.  He  hesitated  to  act  without  him,  and  still 
more  against  him,  lest  failure  should  give  to  rivals  a 
chance  of  overthrowing  himself.  These  were  playing 
their  own  game,  while  using  the  old  constitutional 
phrases  of  the  Charters,  and  there  was  no  hand  strong 
enough  to  restrain  them  or  clever  enough  to  circumvent 
them.  Into  the  details,  it  is  needless  to  enter.  In  the 
end,  the  Earl  of  Lancaster,  having  ventured  on  open 
war,  was  defeated  and  captured  in  the  Battle  of  Borough- 
bridge,  in  Yorkshire,  March  i6,  1322.  He  was  instantly 
and  perfunctorily  tried  as  a  traitor,  and  beheaded.  His 
contemptible  name  became  the  convenient  watchword  of 
a  party.  The  rival  influence  which  he  had  set  up  against 
the  Crown  was  intensified,  and  led  to  important  conse- 
quences in  the  next  century.  But  the  struggle  had 
been  mainly  between  the  Crown  and  the  feudal  barons. 


A.D.  1291-1327.]  CIVIL  WAR.  303 

Parliament,  during  this  reign,  was  little  else  than  a 
conclave  of  armed  vassals,  who  browbeat  others  or  who 
were  browbeaten  themselves. 

At  this  point,  a  domestic  trouble  arose,  which  cannot 
be  fully  unravelled,  although  it  had  grave  results. 
Charles  le  Bel  had  succeeded  his  brother  Philip  V. 
on  the  throne  of  France  ;  and,  as  was  the  feudal  custom, 
required  his  brother-in-law,  Edward  II.,  to  repair  to  his 
Court  and  do  homage  for  Guienne.  As  this  was  not 
done  at  once,  and  as  Edward  failed  to  attend  the  corona- 
tion, an  army  was  sent  in  1324  to  occupy  the  country. 
Queen  Isabella  then  asked  leave  to  go  to  France,  in  order 
to  plead  with  her  brother ;  but  she  never  returned  to 
her  husband.  She  sent  for  her  son,  under  the  pretext  of 
his  doing  homage  for  the  Continental  possessions  instead 
of  his  father ;  and  kept  him  in  Paris,  where  she  was  living 
openly  with  Roger  Mortimer,  Earl  of  March,  one  of  her 
husband's  bitterest  foes.  Again  and  again  Edward  wrote 
to  her,  to  Charles,  and  to  the  Pope  ;  urging  her  return 
to  England  with  the  Prince.  Other  plans  were  being 
laid;  and  in  September,  1326,  the  faithless  Queen,  a 
combined  Clytemnestra  and  Messalina,  landed  at  Orwell, 
in  Su.folk,  with  numerous  hired  troops,  equipped  and 
paid  with  money  borrowed  from  the  Italian  bankers ;  the 
usurers  of  that  day.  Edward  left  London,  and  wandered 
about  for  a  few  weeks,  but  was  taken  in  South  Wales, 
and  sent  as  a  prisoner  to  Kenihvorth.  A  mock  Parlia- 
ment was  held,  packed  with  the  Queen's  friends,  who 
voted  his  deposition.  It  was  a  foregone  conclusion ; 
although,  for  form's  sake,  he  was  made  to  resign  the 
throne.  For  eight  months  he  dragged  on  a  miserable 
existence,  about  which  little  was  known  at  the  time. 
The  details  subsequently  transpired,  when  the  Reign  of 
Terror  under  Isabella  and  Mortimer  had  been  over- 
thrown. He  was  taken  from  Kenihvorth  to  Corfe 
Castle  in  Dorset,  thence  to  Bristol,  and  finally,  to 
Berkeley  Castle;  where,  on  the  night  of  September  21, 
1327,  the  inmates  are  said  to  have  heard  shrieks,  as  of 
one  in  dreadful  torture.  The  next  morning,  the  dead 
body  of  the  unfortunate  King  was  shown,  and  it  was 
alleged  by  the  keepers  that  he  had  died  suddenly  in  the 
night.     Men  did  not  believe  this,  although  afraid  to  say 


304 


SCO  rrisH  a  FFA  IRS.         [c  h  a  p.  x v  i  i  i. 


so ;  but  in  after  yenrs  it  was  stated  that  death  had  been 
caused  by  passing  a  red-hot  iron  into  the  bowels  through 
a  horn,  so  as  not  to  show  any  outward  signs  of  murder. 

The  rule  of  the  barons  during  the  minority  of  Edward 
III.  was  as  arbitrary  and  unjust  as  that  of  any  monarch 
had  been.  Hut  the  usage  grew  that  no  important 
matters  could  be  transacted  without  the  consent  of 
Parliament ;  for  the  practice  had  been  further  developed 
of  coupling  the  vote  of  Supply  with  the  redress  of 
grievances.  Thus,  in  April,  1309,  the  royal  request  for 
an  Aid  was  met  by  a  specific  demand  from  the  Commons 
that  their  petition  about  grievances  should  first  be 
granted.  This  is  noteworthy,  because  it  states  abuses 
and  wrongs  which  continued,  in  various  forms  and 
degrees,  to  worry  and  injure  the  people.  Edward  II. 
expressed  himself  as  greatly  surprised  ;  but  promised  to  con- 
sider the  matter.  When  Parliament  met,  three  months 
later,  at  Stamford,  he  yielded  every  point,  and  in  return, 
received  an  Aid  of  a  twenty-fifth.  Parliament  was 
becoming  the  place  to  which  were  sent  all  demands  for 
the  reform  of  abuses ;  for  the  redress  of  wrongs  ;  and  for 
changes  in  unequal  laws.  Requests  which  in  Norman 
times  had  been  made  to  the  King  alone,  were  now 
addressed  to  him  in  the  Legislature,  and  formed  matters 
for  conference  and  debate.  No  fewer  than  two  hundred 
and  sixty-eight  petitions  were  thus  presented  at  West- 
minster in  1 3 15.  In  course  of  time,  certain  days  were 
set  apart  for  their  consideration.  As  their  number  and 
importance  grew,  a  Committee  was  named  to  examine  and 
report  upon  them.  This  custom  of  petitioning  gradually 
extended  to  the  country  at  large,  and  at  length  settled 
into  a  right. 

Another  notable  incident  of  this  reign  was  the  sup- 
pression of  the  great,  wealthy,  and  powerful  Order  of 
Knights  Templars.  From  a  very  humble  beginning  in 
1 118,  when  nine  poor  Crusaders  assumed  the  duty  of 
protecting  pilgrims  at  Jerusalem,  they  had  enormously 
increased  in  numbers  and  in  property.  Concerning  this 
Order,  half  aristocratic,  half  religious,  with  similar  bodies, 
like  the  Knights  of  St.  John  of  Jerusalem,  the  Knights  of 
St.  James,  and  the  Knights  of  St.  Michael,  Buckle  says 
they  were  establishments  which   "inflicted   the   greatest 


A.D.  1291-1327.]  KNIGHTS  TEMPLARS.  305 

evils  on  society,  and  whose  members,  combining  analo- 
gous vices,  enlivened  the  superstition  of  monks  with  the 
debauchery  of  soldiers."  After  the  loss  of  the  Holy 
Land,  their  luxury,  pride,  and  wealth  aroused  much 
enmity  in  the  countries  where  they  settled.  Philip  IV. 
of  France  was  the  first  to  assail  them.  In  1307,  he 
seized  their  property  and  cast  them  into  prison.  His 
influence  with  Pope  Clement  V.  was  such  as  to  induce 
him,  two  years  later,  to  issue  a  Bull,  suppressing  the 
Order,  on  certain  charges  of  heresy  and  crime ;  but, 
in  reality,  to  gratify  the  royal  cupidity.  Edward  II. 
followed  the  example  of  his  father-in-law\  All  the 
Templars  in  England  were  imprisoned  ;  though  no  evi- 
dence was  brought  against  them,  excepting  that  of 
three  men  of  bad  character.  The  customary  stories 
were  told  or  invented,  of  corruption,  blasphemy,  and 
impiety,  in  excuse  for  the  persecution  and  suppression. 
As  the  object  was  to  secure  their  vast  wealth,  they  were 
pronounced  guilty,  and  sent  to  various  Monasteries. 
None  were  racked,  or  put  to  death,  as  had  been  the  case 
in  France.  The  famous  church  which  bears  their  name 
in  London  dates  from  1185.  Their  suppression  fore- 
shadowed that  of  the  alien  priories  under  Henry  V., 
and  the  dissolution  of  the  Monasteries  in   1536-9. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

DOMESTIC   MANNERS    IN    THE   THIRTEENTH    AND    FOUR- 
TEENTH   CENTURIES. 

By  the  zeal  and  industry  of  patient  investigators, 
numerous  particulars  of  domestic  manners  have  been 
brought  to  light  ;  especially  in  the  reproduction  of 
satirical  stories  and  songs  of  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth 
centuries.  They  are  to  be  found  in  the  '  Transactions  '  of 
the  Camden  and  Percy  Societies,  and  of  other  learned 
bodies,  and  in  such  valuable  works  as  those  of  Thomas 
Wright.  Many  of  these  contemporary  narratives  cannot 
be  clothed  in  modern  dress,  because  of  their  almosr 
invariable  coarseness.     The  standard  of  verbal  and  social 


3o6  DOMESTIC  MANNERS.  [chap,  xix. 

refinement  was  extremely  low.  In  fashionable  romances, 
composed  for  the  entertainment  of  the  best  society,  and 
in  books  of  professedly  moral  instruction  for  young 
people  of  both  sexes,  tales  are  told  and  dialogues  are 
reported  in  language  which  cannot  be  quoted.  Ladies 
are  described  as  saying  and  doing  things  which  would 
now  be  scouted  and  abhorred.  Even  when  these  are 
especially  heinous  or  gross,  the  narrators,  while  ridiculing 
failure,  utter  no  words  of  condemnation. 

Such  was  the  polite  literature  of  the  time.  To  refer 
to  it  at  all  is  odious  ;  but  it  is  necessary,  in  order  to 
reflect  truly  the  manners  of  the  times,  and  especially  in 
order  to  refute  that  false  modern  sentiment  which  views 
everything  connected  with  the  Middle  Ages  through  a 
rose  coloured  halo,  and  laments  over  what  is  termed  the 
decadence  of  chivalry.  The  alleged  gallantry  and  refine- 
ment of  feeling  which  men  are  supposed  to  have  shown 
towards  the  opposite  sex,  was  but  a  conventional  and 
hollow  politeness ;  for  ladies  were  often  treated  with 
revolting  brutality.  Men  beating  their  wives,  and 
women  with  whom  they  quarrel,  but  who  are  not  their 
wives,  is  a  common  incident  in  the  tales  and  romances. 
The  legal  and  actual  condition  of  women  remained  for 
generations  as  delineated  in  the  thirty-second  Chapter. 
Among  the  upper  classes,  at  any  rate,  the  bonds  of 
matrimony  were  soluble  almost  at  pleasure ;  if  money 
was  forthcoming.  Eleanor  of  Aquitaine,  consort  of 
Henry  II.,  married  him  immediately  after  being  divorced 
for  the  purpose  from  Louis  VII.  of  France.  Constance  of 
Brittany,  mother  of  Prince  Arthur — whom  Shakspere  has 
idealized — left  her  husband,  Ranulph,  Earl  of  Chester,  to 
marry  Guy  of  Flanders.  Philip  II.  of  France  wedded 
the  sister  of  the  King  of  Denmark  one  day,  and  divorced 
her  the  next ;  and  after  uniting  himself  to  a  German 
lady,  repudiated  her  and  returned  to  the  Dane.  King 
John,  in  1189,  divorced  one  wife  and  took  Isabella  of 
Angouleme.  How  little  he  cared  to  show  himself  faithful 
to  either,  the  Chroniclers  of  the  time  freely  narrate. 
Matrimonial  infidelity  and  infelicity  appear  to  have  been 
the  prevalent  order  of  things,  not  only  with  monarchs 
but  among  the  nobility,  and,  by  presumption,  among  all 
classes.     All  sins  and  vices  were  condoned  to   all    men, 


A.D.  1 200-1400.]  FASHIONS.  307 

and  to  women,  so  long  as  they  took  care  to  keep  on  good 
terms  with  Holy  Church. 

The  effigy  of  Henry  HI.,  in  Westminster  Abbey,  shows 
him  in  a  long  and  full  tunic,  with  a  mantle  fastened  by  a 
brooch  on  the  right  shoulder.  The  boots  are  crossed  by 
golden  bands,  each  square  bearing  a  lion.  The  usual 
dress  of  men  of  the  richer  classes  was  the  long  gown, 
lined  with  fur  in  Winter,  and  reaching  to  the  feet,  a 
tunic  or  surcoat  of  good  quality  and  gay  colour, 
stockings  of  cloth,  worked  with  gold,  and  drawers. 
Cloaks  and  mantles  were  used  on  state  occasions,  or 
when  travelling.  The  excessive  bravery  of  attire  led 
the  Scots  to  deride  the  army : — "  Longbeards,  hartlesse  ; 
painted  hoods,  witlesse ;  gaie  cotes,  gracelesse,  make 
England  thriftlesse."  Ladies  still  wore  the  robe  or 
gown  with  tight  sleeves,  and  over  it  a  super-tunic  ;  both 
made  of  the  finest  materials  and  richly  embroidered  ;  but 
the  dress  was  ridiculously  long  and  trailing.  The  need- 
less amount  of  silk  and  woollen  stuff  thus  worn  is 
frequently  spoken  of  in  the  sermons  and  in  the  stories  of 
the  time.  The  veil  and  wimple  were  often  of  gold  tissue. 
False  hair  was  largely  used,  and  tight-lacing  had  long 
been  practised.  Men  still  wore  flowing  curls,  but  the 
face  was  not  shaven  as  among  the  Normans.  Rings 
were  entrusted  to  messengers  as  their  credentials,  or 
were  lent  for  the  purpose  of  introducing  the  bearer. 
Magic  rings  were  supposed  to  possess  peculiar  charms, 
and  ancient  rings  containing  engraved  stones  were 
believed  to  impart  extraordinary  benefit  and  virtue  to 
the  wearers.  The  presentation  of  gloves  was  a  general 
custom.  These  were  sometimes  wrought  with  silk, 
richly  embroidered  and  adorned  with  jewels,  and  were 
esteemed  worthy  of  acceptance  by  kings,  nobles,  and 
prelates.  Chain-mail  was  being  superseded  by  plate- 
armour.  The  knightly  baldrick,  and  the  girdle,  were 
magnificently  wrought  in  gold,  and  enriched  with 
precious  stones. 

Numerous  books  of  instruction  in  good  manners, 
written  for  the  benefit  of  young  ladies  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  contain  particulars  of  habits  to  be  avoided.  They 
are  warned  against  scolding,  disputing,  swearing,  eating 
or   drinking   too   freely,    and   getting   intoxicated.     They 


3o8  DOMESTIC  MANNERS.  [chap.  xix. 

are  recommended  to  keep  their  hands  clean,  to  cut  their 
nails  often,  and  not  to  suffer  them  to  grow  beyond  the 
Hnger.  The  directions  for  behaving  at  table  are  precise  :— 
"  In  eating,  you  must  avoid  much  laughing  or  talking. 
If  you  eat  with  another"  {i.e.,  off  the  same  plate,  or  from 
the  same  mess),  turn  the  nicest  bits  to  him,  and  do  not 
go  picking  out  the  finest  and  largest  for  yourself;  which 
is  not  courteous.  No  one  should  eat  greedily  a  choice 
bit  which  is  too  large  or  too  hot,  for  fear  of  choking  or 
Ijurning  herself.  Each  time  you  drink,  wipe  your  mouth 
well,  that  no  grease  may  go  into  the  wine  ;  which  is  very 
unpleasant  to  the  person  who  drinks  after  you.  But 
when  you  wipe  your  mouth  for  drinking,  do  not  wipe 
your  eyes  or  nose  with  the  table-cloth,  and  avoid 
spilling  with  your  mouth,  or  greasing  your  hands  too 
much."     Many  other  minute  directions  are  given. 

The  scattered  population  in  rural  districts,  where 
small  villages  and  hamlets,  though  numerous,  were 
distant  from  cities,  towns,  and  fairs,  had  to  depend 
mainly  upon  nomadic  traders  and  artisans.  The  roads 
were  constantly  traversed  by  such  people,  who  earned  a 
precarious  livelihood  by  supplying  the  necessities  of  the 
country-side  with  commodities  in  daily  use,  or  by  per- 
forming such  mechanical  services  as  could  not  be  obtained 
otherwise.  There  were  also  buffoons,  gleemen,  minstrels, 
and  singers ;  itinerant  quacks  and  drugsellers  ;  pedlars 
and  chapmen  ;  peasants  out  of  bond — or  "  masterless 
men,"  always  in  dread  of  arrest — outlaws,  and  thieves 
of  all  kinds,  strolling  preachers.  Mendicant  Friars, 
Pardoners,  and  Pilgrims.  Universal  panaceas,  were 
common.  The  travelling  herbalist  puffed  his  wares 
very  much  in  the  style  of  Ben  Johnson's  mountebank 
early  in  the  seventeenth  century,  or  like  the  rural 
charlatan  of  the  present  day.  He  launched  sonorous 
sentences  and  told  marvellous  tales  when  setting  forth 
the  pretended  efficacy  of  his  medicaments,  and  the  cures 
they  had  wrought.  Cagliostro  has  had  his  counterparts 
in  every  age.  The  popular  songs  and  satires  record  the 
sayings  and  doings  of  these  itinerant  quacks.  Sometimes 
they  found  themselves  within  the  clutches  of  the  law  ; 
for  even  in  those  early  days  the  regular  and  authorized 
practitioners     sought     to     uphold     their     monopoly     b)) 


A.D.  I200-I400.]  CHARLATANS  AND  QUACKS.         309 

enactments.  One  Roger  Clark,  in  1381,  was  sued 
for  the  illegal  practice  of  medicine  in  the  City  of 
London,  because  he  pretended  to  cure  a  woman  of'  an 
illness  by  making  her  wear  a  parchment  charm.  He 
was  brought  to  the  pillory  on  a  horse  without  a  saddle, 
preceded  by  trumpets  and  pipes ;  his  parchment,  a  whet- 
stone, and  other  implements  used  by  him,  being  hung 
round  his  neck  and  down  his  back,  "in  token  that  he 
had  lied."  Forty  years  afterwards,  in  142 1,  an  Ordinance 
against  the  meddlers  with  Physic  and  Surgery  was  passed. 
It  denounced  severe  penalties  on  all  physicians  who  had 
not  been  approved  by  the  Universities,  and  surgeons  by 
the  masters  of  that  art.  But  the  alleged  irregularities 
were  not  checked  by  this  measure,  nor  by  the  grant  of  a 
Charter  in  1540  to  the  Company  of  Barber-Surgeons  of 
London. 

Pedlars  and  chapmen  swarmed  during  this  period. 
There  were  not  then  to  be  found  shops  in  every  village, 
supplied  with  the  necessaries  of  daily  life.  Household 
wares  were  carried  about  the  country  by  packmen,  on 
their  shoulders,  or  by  the  aid  of  a  horse.  Among  the 
articles  offered  for  sale  by  the  travelling  mercers  and 
dealers  were  girdles,  buckles,  gloves,  steel  chains,  cords 
for  viols,  wimples  dyed  in  saffron,  needles  and  thimbles, 
jewel-cases,  leather  purses,  tags  for  laces,  skin  rasps, 
arrow-points,  kerchiefs  and  ties,  both  of  silk  and  linen, 
spoons,  rolling-pins,  flageolets,  beds,  awls,  lancets,  soap, 
sulphur,  knives,  incense,  tablets,  silver  and  brass  ware, 
spices,  ointments,  dice,  and  toys.  There  was  consider- 
able trade  with  the  Continent,  especially  with  France 
and  with  Flanders,  for  articles  of  luxury  and  adornment. 
London  was  the  chief  port  of  entry,  although  a  large  and 
lucrative  trade  was  carried  on  through  other  ports  on  the 
Eastern  and  Southern  coasts.  Among  the  former.  Sand- 
wich, Winchelsea,  Dover,  Harwich,  Yarmouth,  Norwich, 
Lynn,  Boston,  Hull,  and  Newcastle  were  the  principal  ; 
and  of  the  latter,  Southampton,  Weymouth,  Dartmouth, 
Plymouth,  Bristol,  Looe,  and  Fowey. 

Southampton  was  for  centuries  the  great  port  where 
carracks  from  Flanders  and  galleys  from  Venice  poured 
into  England  the  treasures  of  the  then  known  world. 
Nearly  forty  trades  are  mentioned  in  the  town-records  of 


3IO  DOMESTIC  MANNERS.         [chap.  xix. 

the  fourteenth  century,  as  carried  on,  not  only  by  the 
natives,  but  by  numerous  settlers  from  Burgundy,  Lom- 
bardy,  Flanders,  and  Denmark.  The  Southern  counties 
found  there  a  ready  market  for  their  produce  and  industry 
in  exchange  for  the  foreign  commodities  named  below, 
By  the  end  of  that  century,  the  merchants  of  Bristol  had 
made  their  city  the  chief  depot  for  the  wine  trade  with 
the  South  of  France,  for  the  salt  trade  with  Brittany, 
for  the  fish  trade  of  the  Channel,  and  the  Staple  for 
lead,  tin,  and  leather.  This,  with  cloth,  was  exported 
to  Denmark  in  exchange  for  stock-fish.  The  13ristoI 
merchants  were  men  of  wealth  and  renown,  living 
splendidly  in  large  houses,  the  spacious  cellars  stored 
with  goods,  the  walls  of  the  dwelling-rooms  hung  with 
Arras  tapestry,  and  having  plate  that  rivalled  the  posses- 
sions of  the  nobles.  Norwich  was  also  a  flourishing 
port;  and  Beccles  was  then  close  to  the  sea.  Wells, 
Cley,  and  Blakeney,  counted  their  tonnage  by  hundreds, 
and  did  a  great  trade  with  the  Hanse  Towns.  There 
have  been  similar  recessions  and  corresponding  encroach- 
ments on  other  parts  of  the  coast.  Norfolk  was  the 
richest  county  in  England ;  excepting  only  Middlesex. 
It  was  the  principal  seat  of  the  woollen  manufacture, 
carried  on  in  numerous  villages — that  of  Worsted  giving 
its  name  to  the  article  from  which  stockings  were  knitted 
— and  its  agricultural  renown,  especially  for  barley,  was 
great.  Oxfordshire  ranked  next  in  wealth,  owing 
entirely  to  its  agriculture.  The  poorest  counties  were 
Lancashire  and  the  West  and  North  Ridings  of  York- 
shire. These  modern  hives  of  industry  were  little  else 
than  moorland  and  fen,  scantily  peopled.  The  Mersey 
was  an  unfrequented  estuary,  and  the  Irwell  a  babbling 
mountain  stream. 

Among  articles  largely  imported  from  the  Continent 
were  silks,  furs,  and  ornamental  leather.  Squirrel  and 
other  skins  were  brought  from  Spain  ;  rayed  cloths  from 
Brabant  and  Flanders ;  silk  textures  from  Limoges ; 
wines  from  France,  Spain,  Greece,  and  Italy ;  alum  from 
Biscay ;  pitch,  charcoal,  and  timber  from  the  Baltic ; 
garlic  and  onions  from  Amiens,  and  woad,  for  dyeing, 
from  Normandy  and  Picardy.  The  usual  price  of  im- 
ported wine  was  about  thirty  shillings  a  tun.     Trade  had 


A.D.  1 200- 1 400.]      VARIO  US  IMP  OR  TS.  31 1 

extended  also  to  Lorraine,  Norway,  Lubeck,  Lucca, 
Florence,  to  the  Mediterranean  ports,  and  to  the  Orient. 
Sir  John  Mandeville  (1300-13 7 2),  the  earliest  English' 
man  who  wrote  an  account  of  his  adventures,  spent 
thirty-three  years  in  wandering  over  Europe,  Asia,  and 
Africa.  His  usual  appellation  is  "  the  lying  traveller  "  ; 
unless  the  modern  theory  be  accepted,  that  the  book  is 
a  later  compilation,  and  the  reputed  author  a  myth. 
His  narrative  was  long  exceedingly  popular,  and 
was  translated  into  various  languages  after  its  first 
issue  in  1499  by  Wynkyn  de  Worde.  Spices  and 
frankincense  came  from  the  East,  through  Genoa,  and 
from  Arabia ;  palm-oil  from  Baghdad ;  and  purple  drapery 
from  India.  Miscellaneous  articles  of  import  frequently 
mentioned  are  quicksilver,  vermilion,  coloured  glass, 
sulphur,  ivory,  turpentine,  wax,  and  whalebone.  Among 
articles  of  food  thus  introduced  were  pepper,  sugar, 
almonds,  ginger,  figs,  raisins,  cinnamon,  dates,  olive  oil, 
rice,  cloves,  mace,  and  saffron.  The  only  English  fruits 
named  in  the  '  Liber  Albus,'  or  White  Book  of  the  City 
of  London,  are  apples,  pears,  and  walnuts,  and  the  chief 
vegetable  are  cabbages,  onions,  leeks,  and  garlic.  Pease 
and  beans  of  a  coarse  kind  were  used.  There  is  much 
uncertainty  upon  the  subject  of  the  cultivation  of  esculent 
plants.  It  is  probable  that  in  the  gardens  of  monasteries, 
vegetables  were  reared,  such  as  were  not  in  common  use. 
Scurvy,  itch,  and  a  kind  of  leprosy,  or  scrofula,  were 
among  the  inevitable  consequences  of  the  large  use  of 
salted  provisions  during  at  least  one  half  of  the  year, 
and  the  absence  of  such  wholesome  vegetables  as  potatoes, 
carrots,  and  parsnips.  The  virulence  and  fatality  of  these 
loathsome  diseases  were  aggravated  by  the  inconceivably 
filthy  habits  that  prevailed. 

The  extensive  foreign  trade  involved  a  general  use 
of  currency  or  bullion,  at  a  time  when  modern  banking 
facilities  and  exchanges  were  unknown.  The  sterling 
money  of  England — so  called  from  the  Esterlings.  or  mer- 
chants of  the  Hanse  Towns,  who  were  skilled  in  coinage — 
was  famous  throughout  Europe  for  its  purity.  The 
standard  was  eleven  ounces  two  pennyweights  of  pure 
silver  to  eighteen  pennyweights  of  alloy  ;  out  of  wliich 
two  hundred  and  forty  silver  pennies  were  coined.     'J'hey 


312  DOMESTIC  MANNERS.         [chap.  xix. 

were  the  sole  currency  down  to  the  fourteenth  century. 
Depreciation  was  sometimes  attempted;  as  in  1344, 
under  Edward  III.,  who  ordered  twenty-six  additional 
coins  to  be  minted  out  of  the  same  weight  of  metal ;  or 
at  different  times  when  the  quantity  of  alloy  was 
increased ;  but  the  inevitable  effect  was  to  derange  trade 
and  industry,  and  to  raise  prices ;  so  that  the  evil 
wrouglit  its  own  cure,  and  the  debased  currency  had  to 
be  called  in.  Clipping  the  coinage  was  felony  ;  punish- 
able with  mutilation  and  death.  Great  improvements  in 
the  operations  of  the  Mint  were  made  in  the  first  half 
of  the  fourteenth  century,  when  silver  halfpennies  and 
farthings  were  made.  Extant  treatises  show  considerable 
numismatic  and  scientific  knowledge.  Payment  was 
made  partly  by  tale,  but  chiefly  by  weight.  In  the  time 
of  Edward  III.  a  double  standard  was  introduced;  gold 
being  represented  by  the  well-known  beautiful  Flemish 
"noble,"  of  the  nominal  value  of  six  and  eightpence — • 
afterwards  appreciated  to  ten  shillings — and  by  the  half 
and  the  quarter  noble.  The  silver  groat,  of  four  pennies, 
and  the  half  groat,  were  also  introduced.  The  process  of 
coinage  was  rude.  The  metal  was  cast  from  the  melting- 
pot  into  long  bars,  which  were  cut  with  shears  into  square 
pieces  of  approximate  weight.  These  were  reduced  to  a 
round  shape  by  tongs  and  hammer,  and  were  made  white 
by  annealing  or  boiling,  before  receiving  the  impress 
from  the  die  and  hammer.  This  somewhat  primitive 
kind  of  money  continued  until  1563,  when  milled  money 
took  its  place.  The  introduction  of  base  or  inferior 
foreign  coins  led  to  Statutes  being  passed  requiring  alien 
merchants  to  bring  W'ith  them  actual  bullion  in  payment 
for  their  purchases  ;  while  the  exportation  of  English  coin 
was  checked  as  far  as  possible.  Edward  III.  also  issued, 
in  1343,  the  florin;  so  called  from  Florence,  where  it  was 
first  struck  in  the  previous  century.  It  was  a  gold  coin 
of  the  nominal  value  of  seventy-two  silver  pennies. 
There  were  half  and  quarter  florins ;  but  they  were  un- 
popular, and  were  soon  called  in  and  re-coined  in  the 
form  of  nobles.  Denominations  of  pounds,  marks,  and 
shillings  were  for  a  lengthened  period  merely  figures 
of  account.  In  the  time  of  Henry  VI.,  a  new  gold  coin 
appeared,   called   the    "angel,"   from   the   figure   on   the 


A.D.  I200-I400.]  THE  COINAGE.  313 

obverse  of  St.  Michael  trampling  on  the  dragon ;  and 
under  his  successor,  Edward  IV,,  a  variation  was  made  in 
the  noble  by  adding  a  full-blown  rose.  The  sovereign 
made  its  appearance  in  1490,  of  the  value  of  twenty 
shillings ;  coined  for  the  first  time  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  VII. 

Dried  fruits,  as  well  as  spices,  properly  so  called,  were 
included  under  the  general  name  of  "spicery."  Those 
who  imported  them  from  the  East  also  brought  the  rich 
silks,  fine  linens,  and  gold  stuffs  for  which  Asia  was 
renowned.  The  partiality  for  pronounced  flavours,  both 
in  dishes  and  in  drinks,  led  to  the  use  of  a  great  variety 
of  condiments  and  aromatics.  Spices  formed  an  im- 
portant article  of  diet.  Dried  and  salted  meat  or  fish 
were  the  staple  food  in  winter,  and  required  to  be 
flavoured  in  order  to  break  the  monotony  and  to  tempt 
the  appetite.  Beer  was  brewed  indiscriminately  from 
barley,  wheat,  and  oats ;  and  sometimes  from  a  mixture  of 
the  three.  Spices  and  herbs  were  largely  used  in  brewing ; 
and  with  wine  as  a  hot  drink.  The  cultivation  of  hops 
was  not  introduced  into  England  from  Flanders  until  the 
time  of  Henry  VIII.,  nor  did  it  become  general  before 
the  seventeenth  century.  Great  prejudice  existed  against 
hops,  and  they  were  denounced,  in  a  petition  to 
Parliament,  as  "  a  wicked  weed,  that  would  spoil  the 
taste  of  the  drink,  and  endanger  the  people."  Brewing 
was  carried  on  almost  exclusively  by  women,  and  most  of 
the  beer  houses  in  London  were  kept  by  females,  who 
brewed  and  sold  without  tax  or  license ;  subject  alone  to 
the  Assize  of  Ale,  and  to  the  domiciliary  visits  of  the  ale- 
conner and  the  alderman.  Horns,  often  curiously  carved, 
fine  specimens  of  which  still  exist,  of  a  later  date,  but  in 
the  same  style,  were  used  for  drinking  ;  as  in  former 
times.  The  beer-sellers  appear  to  have  had  an  evil 
reputation.  They  were  constantly  in  trouble  in  the 
manorial  courts  for  false  measure ;  as  were  the  vint- 
ners for  adulterating  their  wines.  One  of  these  was 
pilloried  in  1364,  and  made  to  drink  publicly  some  of  his 
deteriorated  liquor,  while  the  rest  was  poured  over  his 
head.  Besides  this,  he  was  sentenced  to  renounce  the 
trade  for  ever.  Bakers  also  had  an  evil  reputation,  and 
were  continually  being  convicted  and  punished  for  short 


314  DOMESTIC  MANNERS.         [chap.  xix. 

weight  and  for  using  inferior  ingredients.      Adulteration 
of  food  and  drink  is  not  peculiar  to  any  age  or  country. 

The  culinary  art  was  carefully  studied  among  the 
wealthy  classes  ;  whatever  was  the  condition  of  the  bulk 
of  the  people.  Sumptuous  entertainments  were  given  by 
the  nobles ;  most  of  whom  maintained,  besides  their 
personal  retinue,  a  small  army  of  dependents.  Mediaeval 
cookery  books,  still  in  existence,  show  the  labour,  ex- 
pense, and  skill  bestowed.  They  contain  directions  for 
numerous  made  dishes,  some  of  these  being  very  com- 
plicated and  delicate.  The  office  of  cook  was  of  great 
importance.  Alexander  Neckham,  in  his  '  Liber  de 
Utensilibus,'  compiled  at  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century, 
gives  an  elaborate  account  of  kitchen  furniture  and 
appliances.  Many  of  the  clergy,  being  wealthy,  kept 
excellent  tables,  and  maintained  their  professional  repu- 
tation as  gourmands.  The  monks  of  St.  Swithin,  at 
Winchester,  laid  a  formal  complaint  before  Henry  II. 
against  their  Abbot,  for  depriving  them  of  three  out  of 
thirteen  accustomed  dishes  for  dinner.  The  monks  of 
St.  Augustine,  at  Canterbury,  were  yet  more  luxurious. 
They  had  at  least  seventeen  dishes,  besides  dessert,  and 
their  cook  was  renowned  for  the  use  of  spices  and  sauces 
to  provoke  appetite.  De  Missd  ad  mensam  was  a  pro- 
verbial saying  ;  rendered,  in  colloquial  phrase,  "  from  Mass 
to  mess ;  "  implying  that,  in  the  popular  opinion,  the  only 
active  employment  of  the  monks  was  to  eat  and  drink 
and  say  their  prayers.  Many  such  tales  were  current, 
similar  to  those  quoted  in  the  fourteenth  Chapter  from 
Giraldus  and  others.  Lent  was  observed  with  strictness. 
There  was  a  general  abstinence  from  meat  on  Wednes- 
days and  Fridays  throughout  the  year.  Trout  streams 
and  fish  ponds  were  essential  to  every  monastery.  Besides 
the  ordinary  fresh  and  salt  water  fish  in  common  use, 
frequent  mention  is  made  of  the  whale,  the  porpoise,  the 
grampus  and  other  coarse  kinds.  At  the  Lent  season  in 
1246,  Henry  III.  ordered  the  Sheriffs  of  London  to 
purchase  for  his  use  one  hundred  pieces  of  the  best  whale, 
and  two  porpoises.  Eels  and  herrings  were  largely  used 
by  all  classes,  and  herring  pies  were  esteemed  as  delicacies. 
Lampreys  were  a  favourite  dish  with  epicures,  and 
Gloucester  was   renowned   for   them.      The   Severn    was 


A.D.  I20O-I400.]    MEALS  AND  HOURS.  315 

the  main  source  of  the  salmon  supply  ;  but  a  large  and 
valuable  fishing  industry  was  pursued  along  the  coast, 
from  Cornwall  to  Scarborough. 

The  custom  of  keeping  early  hours  prevailed,  and 
is  frequently  referred  to  by  contemporary  writers. 
People  generally  rose  with  the  sun.  The  usual  dinner 
hour  was  nine  or  ten.  This  meal  was  partaken  of  in 
public,  in  large  houses ;  the  family,  their  guests,  and 
the  servants  dining  together  in  the  hall.  Forks  were 
unknown.  Supper  was  served  in  the  same  way  about 
five.  In  summer  it  was  customary  to  retire  as  darkness 
approached ;  the  crowd  of  dependents  sleeping  where 
they  could  among  the  straw  or  rushes  that  littered  the 
room.  Even  so  late  as  the  time  of  Edward  IV.  this 
custom  prevailed.  In  the  '  Book  of  Ordinances,'  com- 
piled for  the  palace  domestics,  several  of  them  are  spoken 
of  as  having  beds  allotted  in  the  hall.  Thus,  in  the 
midst  of  a  lavish  display  and  profuse  hospitality,  there 
were  things  in  the  household  economy  of  the  great  and 
rich  which  appear  to  modern  eyes  exceedingly  mean  and 
sordid.  Some  estates  were  held  by  the  tenure  of  pro- 
viding clean  straw  for  the  King's  bed,  and  litter  for  his 
chamber,  as  often  as  he  lodged  in  the  neighbourhood. 
By  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century,  however,  with  all 
classes,  excepting  the  poorest,  the  appearance  of  the 
bed-chamber  was  a  subject  of  attention  and  pride.  It 
was  the  usual  place  to  receive  visitors  for  private  con- 
versation. Bedsteads  were  becoming  elaborate  in  their 
carving,  and  were  supplied  with  curtains.  Beds  stuffed 
with  down ;  and  quilts,  sheets,  and  coverlets  are  fre- 
quently mentioned.  A  carved  wooden  hutch,  or  locker, 
was  placed  at  the  foot  of  the  bed,  for  securing  money, 
jewels,  clothes,  and  other  valuables.  As  in  earlier  times, 
and  on  to  a  much  later  period,  the  out-door  occupations 
and  sports  of  the  men  left  them  but  little  opportunity  for 
domestic  life.  The  women,  when  not  engaged  in  house- 
hold duties,  spent  their  time  in  the  bower  or  chamber, 
employed  with  the  distaff  or  with  embroidery.  Scanty 
information  exists  as  to  the  evening  occupations  in 
winter,  but  there  seems  to  have  been  singing  and 
dancing,  and  telling  tales  around  the  huge  log  fires. 
Candles  and  lamps  were  too  expensive  to  be  freely  used, 


3i6  DOMESTIC  MANNERS.  [chap.  XIX. 

but  torches  were  held  by  attendants,  or  were  placed  in 
iron  sconces  fixed  to  the  walls.  Other  artificial  light 
was  scarce  and  costly,  and  was  wholly  beyond  the 
means  of  the  multitude  at  a  time  when  a  pound  of  wax 
candles  formed  a  precious  votive  tribute  at  the  shrine  of 
a  saint.  These  were  used  only  in  churches,  palaces,  and 
baronial  dwellings. 

The  furniture  of  the  dining  table  was  scanty,  even  in 
large  houses.  Its  chief  ornament  was  a  huge  salt-cellar, 
and  the  position  above  or  below  it  continued  to  mark  the 
rank  of  the  guests.  At  royal  tables  and  at  those  of 
wealthy  nobles,  goblets  and  dishes  were  sometimes  of 
silver-gilt  or  enamel.  Great  pride  was  taken  in  the 
possession  of  such  things,  but  in  ordinary  houses  wooden 
bowls  and  trenchers  were  used.  In  the  huts  of  the 
common  people  nothing  was  to  be  found  but  the  barest 
and  rudest  necessaries.  An  iron  tripod  and  a  brass  dish 
formed  the  usual  cooking  apparatus.  Minute  inventories 
taken  for  purposes  of  taxation  show  that  the  contents, 
with  the  tools  of  \vorkmen,  were  comparatively  few  and 
of  slight  value.  Of  household  furniture,  such  families 
had  but  little.  A  bed,  when  rarely  found,  was  valued  at 
from  three  to  six  shillings ;  a  brass  pot,  from  one  to  three 
shillings ;  silver  cups,  one  or  two  shillings ;  a  cobbler's 
stock,  seven  shiUings  ;  a  butcher's,  thirty-eight  shillings. 
Most  of  the  families  named  on  these  lists  had  a  small 
store  of  barley  or  of  oats  ;  very  few  had  wheat.  Hand- 
mills  are  mentioned  as  costing  twelvepence ;  and  grid- 
irons from  sixpence  to  eighteenpence.  Two  valuations  of 
Colchester,  taken  in  1296  and  in  1301  for  the  purposes  of 
a  Subsidy,  prove  that  one  of  the  most  flourishing  towns 
of  that  time  was  far  inferior  to  many  a  modern  village  in 
point  of  domestic  wealth  and  comfort  and  of  the  value  of 
tradesmen's  stock.  One  person,  who  united  the  functions 
of  a  mercer  and  a  vendor  of  spices,  is  returned  as 
possessing  wares  not  more  numerous  or  costly  than  the 
pack  of  a  modern  pedlar.  In  another  case,  the  stock, 
with  the  household  furniture  and  utensils,  is  valued  at 
five  pounds,  nine  shillings,  and  three  pence.  Even 
allowing  for  the  great  difference  in  the  purchasing  {)ower 
of  money,  this  seems  insignificant.  Nothing  escaped  the 
proverbial  vigilance  of  the  Argus-eyed  assessors  and  tax- 


A.D.  1200-1400.]  DOMESTIC  IMPLEMENTS.  317 

collectors.  A  man  whose  property  was  valued  at  ten 
shillings,  had  to  pay  eightpence  tor  the  Subsidy  of  a 
Fifteenth.  A  woman  was  charged  a  penny  on  her  stock 
of  bread  for  sale.  Another,  whose  chief  possession  was  a 
brass  pot,  was  also  amerced  in  a  penny.  The  tools  of  a 
carpenter  did  not  escape.  Two  axes,  an  adze,  a  square, 
and  a  spoke-shave  were  put  down  at  a  shilling,  a  black- 
smith's tools  at  two  shillings,  and  a  tanner's  stock,  tools, 
and  clothes  were  estimated  at  less  than  ten  pounds. 
This  trade  was  then  very  important,  and  continued  to  be 
so  for  centuries.  Leather  was  used  not  only  for  military 
and  trade  purposes,  but  it  formed  a  chief  part  of  the 
dress  of  the  men  among  the  commonalty.  The  Roll  of 
Household  Expenses  of  the  Bishop  of  Hereford,  in 
1289-90,  published  by  the  Camden  Society,  and  the 
Household  Roll  of  the  Countess  of  Leicester,  widow  of 
Simon  de  Montfort,  published  by  the  Roxburgh  Club, 
furnish  interesting  particulars,  of  the  private  life  of 
English  nobles  at  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century. 

The  popular  sports  were  wrestling,  running,  boxing, 
and  horse-racing.  Tilting  at  the  quintain,  on  foot  or  on 
horseback,  as  well  as  in  boats,  was  a  favourite  pastime. 
The  quintain  was  a  strong  upright  post,  with  a  transverse 
piece  moving  on  a  spindle.  The  game  was  to  tilt  at  the 
board  nailed  on  one  end  of  the  cross-bar,  and  to  strike  it 
so  as  to  escape  a  smart  blow  from  a  bag  of  sand  sus- 
pended at  the  other  end.  There  were  numerous  gay 
processions;  municipal,  trading,  and  ecclesiastical;  with 
Maypoles,  Morris-dancing,  and  Mummers.  Dancing  was 
a  common  recreation.  Maidens  in  servitude  claimed  the 
privilege  of  indulging  in  it  on  holidays  and  public 
festivals.  Archery  attained  its  greatest  renown  in  the 
time  of  Edward  IH.,  and  continued  until  the  general 
introduction  of  fire-arms.  The  length  of  the  bow  was 
usually  the  height  of  the  archer,  and  the  "  cloth-yard 
shaft"  is  often  spoken  of.  Terrible  execution  was  done 
therewith  in  the  Scottish  and  French  wars.  Slinging, 
throwing  heavy  weights,  hurling  spears  or  javelins, 
quoits,  and  similar  games  continued  to  be  popular.  Dice 
and  cards  were  the  most  common  among  games  of 
hazard,  and  there  was  a  passion  for  high  play.  In  the 
regulations  for  the  army  of  Richard  L   on   his  crusade, 


3i8  DOMESTIC  MANNERS.  [chap.  xix. 

the  playing  of  any  game  for  money  is  forbidden,  except 
to  knights  and  clerics,  and  they  might  not  lose  more 
than  twenty  shillings  in  one  day  or  night.  Chess,  as  of 
old,  was  a  favourite  recreation.  A  game  called  "  tables," 
of  the  character  of  backgammon,  was  also  played ;  as 
were  social  games  of  questions  and  commands,  and  of 
forfeits.  Cock-fighting,  bull-baiting,  and  bear-baiting 
\v'ere  popular  amusements.  Every  town  of  any  size  had 
its  bull-ring.  An  open  space  in  the  centre  of  Birmingham 
still  has  that  name.  Bears  were  also  tamed,  and  taught 
various  performances.  Hawking  and  hunting,  especially 
the  former,  were  fashionable  out-door  sports.  It  was  a 
mark  of  gentility  to  carry  a  hawk  on  the  gloved  hand 
when  riding  or  visiting.  In  the  illuminated  manuscripts 
of  the  period,  both  ladies  and  gentlemen  are  frequently 
shown  seated  in  conversation,  with  a  hawk  either  on  the 
hand  or  resting  on  a  perch.  Hawking  was  a  complex 
science.  Numerous  treatises  were  written  for  its  eluci- 
dation, and  rules  were  laid  down  for  the  sport.  The 
birds  were  strictly  protected.  A  person  finding  one 
astray  was  required  to  deliver  it  to  the  Sheriff;  who 
made  proclamation  for  the  owner. 

Feats  of  activity,  such  as  vaulting,  tumbling,  sleight  of 
hand,  and  throwing  weights,  were  performed  by  travelling 
jongleurs,  who  were  famous  for  their  dexterity  with 
swords.  They  also  composed  and  recited  descriptive, 
humorous,  and  satirical  pieces.  Like  the  mitni  of 
antiquity,  they  wandered  from  place  to  place,  and  from 
one  country  to  another,  singly  or  in  companies,  ex- 
hibiting wherever  an  audience  could  be  assembled. 
They  frequented  fairs  and  the  great  festivals  of  the 
Church,  and  were  welcomed  in  baronial  halls  and  at 
weddings  and  social  festivities,  where,  by  their  songs, 
gossip,  stories,  mimicry,  dancing,  legerdemain,  and  other 
performances,  they  furnished  a  rude  kind  of  mirth.  The 
modern  word  "juggler"  expresses  what  came  to  be  one 
of  their  principal  accomplishments.  Such  of  their  songs 
and  tales  as  have  been  preserved  furnish  minute  par- 
ticulars of  the  life  of  the  time.  Its  vices,  weaknesses, 
and  foibles,  especially  those  of  the  clergy  and  nobles, 
are  mercilessly  satirized ;  though  the  performers  some- 
times  paid    dearly   for    their   rough    jests    and    pointed 


A.D.  1 200-1400.]  JONGLE URS  AND  MINSTRELS.      319 

personalities.  The  jor>gleurs  gave  place  to  the  minstrels, 
of  whom  mention  is  continually  made  in  works  of  this 
period.  Four  hundred  and  twenty-six  are  said  to  have 
been  present  at  the  marriage  of  one  of  the  nine  daughters 
of  Edward  I.  Various  musical  instruments  are  men- 
tioned ;  including  the  harp,  pipe,  violin,  tabor,  cymbals, 
and  trumpet.  The  Feast  of  Fools,  enacted  by  the 
populace  at  Christmas,  resembled  the  Roman  Saturnalia. 
It  was  a  season  of  universal  revelry  and  license,  when 
all  order,  reverence,  and  authority  were  set  aside.  The 
churl  became  a  Pope,  the  buffoon  a  Cardinal,  and  other 
high  dignitaries,  both  sacred  and  secular,  were  travestied. 
In  this  wild  merriment,  possession  was  taken  of  churches, 
and  coarse  and  ribald  parodies  were  indulged ;  though 
not  to  the  same  extent  as  on  the  Continent. 

Out  of  this  sprang  the  Dance  of  Fools,  the  Abbots  of 
Unreason,  and  the  Lords  of  Misrule,  with  the  ridiculous 
and  almost  blasphemous  farce  of  the  Boy  Bishop.  The 
religious  dramas  known  as  Mysteries,  and  the  Miracle 
Plays  that  followed  them,  were  intended  to  be  substi- 
tutes for  representations  from 'heathen  mythology.  They 
were  Interludes,  at  certain  times,  in  the  regular  Church 
services.  The  Mysteries  were  so  called  from  the  sacred 
character  of  the  subjects,  selected  from  the  narratives  of 
Scripture.  Sometimes  they  were  presented  in  a  long 
series  stretching  from  the  Creation  to  the  Day  of  Judg- 
ment, and  occupying  several  days  in  the  representation. 
They  are  supposed  to  have  been  introduced  into  England 
by  pilgrims  who  had  returned  from  the  Holy  Land. 
The  Miracle  Plays  were  written  and  acted  by  the  clergy, 
and  were  performed  in  or  near  to  sacred  edifices.  They 
were  devoted  to  the  legendary  lives  of  saints.  These 
religious  dramas,  in  which  the  supernatural  largely 
mingled  with  coarse  jests  and  satires,  usually  with  a 
marked  tinge  of  local  colouring,  continued  to  be  highly 
popular  for  a  lengthened  period.  Most  trade  guilds  had 
special  performances.  The  chief  comic  actor  in  them 
was  often  a  representative  of  Beelzebub,  assisted  by  an 
active,  noisy,  merry  troupe  of  subordinate  demons,  who 
aroused  much  laughter  by  their  grotesque  antics  and 
vulgar  ribaldry.  The  only  modern  survival  of  the 
ancient    Mysteries    is    the    Passion- Play   still   performed 


320  DOMESTIC  MANNERS.         Fchap.  xix. 

every  decade  at  Ober-Ammergau.«  Sunday  was  the  chief 
day  of  the  week  for  marriages  and  feasts,  for  revels  in  the 
taverns  and  carousals  in  the  baronial  hall,  for  pageants 
in  Courts  and  dramatic  performances  in  churches,  for 
fairs  in  country  towns,  and  sports  on  village  greens. 

It  is  sometimes  conjectured,  from  the  size  of  old 
churches  in  rural  districts,  away  from  any  town  or  large 
village,  that  the  population,  now  so  sparse,  must  have 
been  much  greater  five  or  six  hundred  years  ago.  Of 
this  there  is  no  proof.  All  the  evidence  tends  to  the 
contrary.  The  explanation  lies  in  the  varied  uses  to 
which  such  edifices  were  put,  and  in  the  elaborate  and 
lengthy  processions  that  formed  so  important  a  part  of 
the  ritual.  The  chancel  alone  was  rigidly  reserved  for 
ecclesiastical  celebrations  and  for  priestly  use.  The  body 
of  the  church,  separated  from  the  chancel  by  the  rood- 
loft  and  screens,  was  the  place  of  common  resort.  It  was 
the  public  hall  or  forum  for  the  people  of  the  parish  ;  and 
was  used  as  much  for  secular  as  for  sacred  purposes. 
Ecclesiastical  and  civil  justice  was  there  dispensed ;  a 
modern  survival  of  the  former  being  the  Commissary 
Court  of  Surrey,  in  St.  Saviour's,  Southwark,  and  the 
quaint  but  perfunctory  legal  procedure  in  St.  Mary-le- 
Bow,  Cheapside,  in  connection  with  appointments  to 
bishoprics.  The  name  of  the  Court  of  Arches  is  derived 
from  the  construction  of  that  church,  where  the  Court 
was  originally  held.  Ordinary  business  was  transacted  ; 
the  procedure  of  manorial  courts  was  conducted  ;  procla- 
mations were  made ;  Charters  and  ordinances  were 
explained ;  fairs  and  markets  were  sometimes  held ; 
gossip  was  carried  on ;  church-ales  were  held  for  the 
repair  of  the  fabrics ;  spectacles  were  witnessed ;  and 
valuables  and  produce  stored  in  churches  ;  which  were 
treated  with  strangely  mixed  feelings  of  reverence  and 
familiarity.  No  idea  then  prevailed  that  a  church  was 
desecrated  by  transacting  the  business  of  life.  To  steal 
goods  there  deposited  was  sacrilege,  as  well  as  robbery. 
Down  to  the  seventeenth  century,  St.  Paul's  Cathedral 
was  partly  used  by  stall-keepers  for  purposes  of  trade. 
In  one  portion,  lawyers  awaited  interviews  with  chance 
clients.  These  buildings  also  formed  refuges  from 
violence  in  a  rude  and  lawless  age.     Occasional  outrages 


A.D..I2O0-I40O.]  CHURCH  ARCHITECTURE.  321 

and  breaking  into  sanctuary  only  reveal  the  prevailing 
sentiment.  The  tower  was  a  landmark  and  a  castle  m 
exposed  places  near  the  sea ;  furnishing  protection  from 
roving  pirates. 

The  thirteenth  century  witnessed  a  great  development 
in  church  architecture.  Many  of  the  cathedrals  already 
existing  were  enlarged  or  beautified  at  great  cost.  No 
fewer  than  one  hundred  and  thirty-nine  abbeys,  priories, 
and  other  great  religious  edifices  were  erected  and 
endowed  from  Henry  III.  to  Edward  II.,  in  addition  to 
numerous  parish  churches  and  chantries.  This  was 
thought  to  be  a  sure  means  of  atoning  for  past  sins, 
however  heinous,  and  thus  securing  the  Divine  favour. 
The  style  of  architecture  is  that  vaguely  known  as  Early 
English.  The  windows  are  long  and  narrow ;  the  arches 
pointed ;  the  steeples  and  spires  lofty,  and  of  fine  propor- 
tions. The  choir  of  Rochester  cathedral,  the  west  fronts 
of  Peterborough  and  of  Wells,  and  great  portions  of 
Worcester  and  Salisbury  cathedrals,  with  numerous  local 
churches,  are  good  specimens  of  this  Order.  It  was 
followed  in  the  fourteenth  century  by  what  is  commonly 
styled  Decorated  Gothic,  which  arose  so  gradually  out  of 
the  preceding,  and  merged  so  gradually  into  the  one  that 
followed,  known  as  the  Perpendicular,  that  it  is  difficult 
to  assign  the  precise  duration.  Existing  structures 
display  mixed  varieties,  as  additions  and  alterations  were 
made  from  time  to  time.  The  cathedrals  of  Ely  and 
Lichfield,  with  York  Minster  and  portions  of  Windsor 
Castle,  and  many  of  the  Lincolnshire  churches,  are 
beautiful  types  of  the  Decorated  Period.  There  was  a 
growing  taste  for  the  Fine  Arts.  Among  the  entries  in 
the  Close  Rolls  are  frequent  orders  for  payments  to  gold- 
smiths and  painters,  for  decorating  the  royal  palaces. 
Brilliantly  illuminated  manuscripts  were  multiplied. 
They  were  much  sought  after  by  wealthy  persons,  and 
were  liberally  paid  for.  Edward  III.  bought,  in  1331,  a 
book  of  French  romances,  for  which  he  gave  the  large 
sum  of  sixty-six  pounds,  thirteen  shillings,  and  four- 
pence  ;  or  more  than  a  thousand  pounds  in  modern 
money.  This  book  was  kept  in  his  own  room  with 
much  care. 

Ordinary  dwellings  continued  to  be  constructed  mainly 


323  DOMESTIC  MANNERS.         [chap,  xix, 

of  timber,  unless  great  strength  was  required,  or  wheie 
the  ostentation  of  some  wealthy  noble  prompted  display. 
When  built  of  stone,  the  object  was  as  much  for  defence 
as  for  occupation.  Little  attention  was  paid  to  domestic 
comfort  and  convenience.  Windows  were  usually  un- 
glazed ;  and  continued  so  for  a  long  period.  They  were 
latticed,  or  fitted  with  panes  of  horn,  or  they  consisted  of 
small  apertures  covered  by  a  curtain  by  day  and  by  a 
hinged  shutter  at  night.  Great  ecclesiastical  edifices, 
where  cost  was  immaterial,  owing  to  the  lavish  piety  of 
devotees,  had  their  "  storied  windows,  richly  dight,  casting 
a  dim  religious  light."  A  precept  of  Henry  III.  directs 
glass  to  be  substituted  for  wood  in  a  windov/  in  the 
Queen's  wardrobe  in  the  Tower,  "  in  order  that  the 
chamber  might  not  be  so  windy."  The  custom  was  for 
the  labour  to  be  hired  by  the  person  who  wanted  a 
building,  or  furniture,  or  a  work  of  art,  or  any  other  kind 
of  commodities,  and  to  provide  all  necessary  materials. 
A  wealthy  lord  or  abbot  would  furnish  stone  from  his 
quarries,  timber  from  his  forests,  metals,  cloth,  and  any 
other  materials  that  he  produced  or  bought.  Out  of 
these,  the  requisite  articles  were  made,  or  the  edifices 
were  reared,  by  the  artificers.  The  smith,  the  carpenter, 
the  mason,  the  wheelwright,  the  carver,  and  other  workmen 
only  supplied  labour  and  skill  in  the  fabrication  of  what  was 
demanded.  They  were  paid  by  the  piece  or  by  the  day ; 
the  wages  for  the  latter  being  threepence  on  an  average, 
but  rising  to  fourpence,  and  even  fivepence,  for  excep- 
tional work,  or  in  large  towns.  Skilled  artisans  devoted 
themselves  to  field-v»-ork  during  harvest  time.  The  hovels 
of  the  peasantry  were  made  of  coarse  and  cheap  materials, 
most  frequently  of  wattles  daubed  with  mud  or  clay,  and 
roofed  with  turf  or  thatched.  Tenements  of  this  mean 
and  fragile  description,  in  which  the  poorer  dependents 
lived,  were  in  close  proximity  to  manor-houses  and  baronial 
halls.  There  must  have  been  among  them  a  terrible 
amount  of  misery,  disease,  and  suffering  during  a  mediaeval 
Winter,  spent  in  dark,  damp,  chilly  huts,  where  the  floor 
was  of  earth,  and  where  the  only  vent  for  the  smoke  from 
the  wood  fire,  or  for  the  reek  from  the  peat  fuel,  was 
through  a  hole  in  the  roof.  The  occupants,  at  the  clojjft 
of  their  day's  toil,  crouched  around  the  fire,  or  grovelled 


A.D.  1 200-1400.]     ARTISANS'  WAGES.  323 

in  the  warm  ashes,  after  their  coarse  evening  meal, 
(joing  to  bed  meant  flinging  themselves  in  their  be- 
grimed garments  on  a  heap  of  straw.  It  was  a  hard, 
cheerless,  dismal  lot. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

AGRICULTURE,    TRAVELLING,    ETC.,    IN    THE    MIDDLE    AGES. 

With  the  modifications  in  personal  service  to  the  feudal 
lords  great  changes  had  been  effected  in  methods  of 
agriculture.  The  King,  the  great  nobles,  prelates  and 
abbots,  monasteries,  and  other  ecclesiastical  corporations, 
had  manors  scattered  up  and  down  the  country  ;  often 
widely  separated.  The  portion  of  each  retained  in  the 
demesne  was  worked  under  the  direction  of  a  resident 
bailiff,  who  saw  that  the  obligations  of  the  villeins  and 
tenants  were  duly  discharged ;  that  sufficient  labour  was 
forthcoming  ;  that  the  crops  and  stock  were  cared  for  and 
were  profitably  sold  ;  and  who  accounted  for  all  on  the  peri- 
odical visits  of  the  steward.  The  rent  of  farm-land  greatly 
varied  in  the  fourteenth  century,  when  a  system  of  leases 
became  common  ;  calling  into  existence  a  class  of  tenants 
between  the  lords  of  the  soil  and  their  serfs.  The  process 
of  this  change  cannot  be  traced,  but  the  fact  is  obvious, 
and  it  amounted  to  a  rural  revolution.  In  1338,  arable 
land  in  Dorset,  Derby,  Bedford,  and  other  counties, 
belonging  to  the  Knights  Hospitallers  of  St.  John,  let 
for  prices  ranging  from  sixpence  to  two  shillings  an  acre. 
Meadow-land  was  of  much  higher  value.  On  the  same 
estates,  in  the  same  year,  the  average  price  of  wheat  was 
28.  io|d.  per  quarter;  of  oats,  is.  2d.  ;  of  peas  and  beans, 
IS.  8d. ;  and  of  barley,  2s.  ijd.  The  prices  of  other 
articles  of  food  in  good  years  were  as  follows  : — a  live  ox, 
16s.,  or,  if  fatted  on  corn,  24s. ;  a  good  fatted  cow,  12s. ; 
a  two-year  old  hog,  3s.  4d. ;  a  sheep  with  the  fleece,  is. 
8d.  ;  if  shorn,  sixpence  less.  A  fatted  goose  cost  three- 
pence ;  a  hen,  three  half-pence  ;  and  three  pigeons,  one 
penny.  A  labourer's  wages  were  three  half-pence  a  day. 
But  a  shilling  would  purchase  of  most  necessary  commo- 
dilies  as  much  as  fifteen  shilliniis  would  now 


324     AGRICULTURE,  TRAVELLING,  ETC.  [chap.  xx. 

The  average  weight  of  a  sheep  was  only  sixty  to  seventy 
pounds.  Its  wool  was  one-seventh,  or  even  less,  of  the 
modern  yield.  An  ox  weighed  about  four  hundred 
pounds.  Horses  were  small  and  weak,  excepting  those 
employed  in  warfare.  Oxen  were  used  for  draught  as 
well  as  for  ploughing.  Murrain  among  cattle,  and  rot  and 
scab  among  sheep,  were  fatal  diseases.  The  latter,  first 
mentioned  about  1380,  was  treated  with  an  ointment  of 
tar  and  butter,  or  lard.  Sheep  had  to  be  kept  under 
cover  from  November  to  April.  The  use  of  roots  for 
feed  was  unknown.  English  husbandry  appears  to  have 
undergone  but  slight  changes  for  a  lengthened  period 
after  the  thirteenth  century.  Descriptions  by  Walter  de 
Henley,  who  wrote  in  the  early  part  of  that  era,  are  con- 
tinued and  expanded  by  Fitzherbert  in  the  first  quarter 
of  the  sixteenth  century.  A  three-course  system  pre- 
vailed ;  the  land  being  divided  into  three  equal  portions. 
Wheat  was  followed  by  oats,  barley,  pease,  beans,  or 
vetches,  and  occasionally  by  hemp  or  linseed,  and  the 
third  year  was  fallow.  For  a  crop  of  wheat,  the  land  was 
ploughed  —  or,  rather,  scratched — thrice,  with  teams  of 
four  or  more  oxen,  at  a  cost  of  sixpence  an  acre.  After 
sowing  the  seed  broadcast,  there  was  no  harrowing  or 
rolling.  Hoeing  cost  a  penny  an  acre,  and  a  second 
hoeing  a  halfpenny ;  mowing,  twopence  halfpenny ; 
reaping,  fivepence ;  and  cartage  a  penny.  The  crop  was 
cut  high  on  the  stalk,  and  the  long  straw  left  for  thatch- 
ing or  litter,  or  to  be  ploughed  in  as  manure.  Farmers 
depended  upon  arable  crops,  meadow  hay,  and  pasturage. 
Artificial  grasses  were  unknown.  Implements  were  rude 
and  primitive.  The  dearness  of  iron  compelled  the  use 
of  hard  wood.  Wet  land  was  drained  and  ridged.  Light 
and  poor  soils  were  treated  with  marl  and  clay,  and 
heavy   land  with   lime. 

The  depopulation  by  repeated  outbreaks  of  the  pesti- 
lence, or  the  Black  Death,  between  1348  and  1369,  as 
described  in  the  twenty-second  Chapter,  permanently 
reduced  the  value  of  land  for  ordinary  agricultural 
purposes.  There  were  considerable  fluctuations  during 
the  next  fifty  years,  and  throughout  the  ensuing  century 
it  remained  at  its  lowest  ebb.  Not  until  the  beginning  ot 
the  sixteenth  century  was  there  any  improvement.     U'here 


A.D.  1 200-1400.]   FARMING  METHODS.  325 

were  not  hands  enough,  whether  bond  or  free,  to  till  the 
cultivated  land,  even  in  the  imperfect  manner  in  which 
it  had  been  tilled  formerly.  Therefore,  the  owners  laid 
down  large  portions  in  pasture,  and  grew  wool  instead  of 
corn.  Vast  tracts  were  enclosed  by  hedges  for  great  flocks 
of  sheep.  Such  peasants  as  remained  were  ejected  from 
their  miserable  huts.  Villages  fell  into  decay,  because 
hundreds  of  acres,  hitherto  fertile,  were  watched  by  a 
few  shepherds  and  their  dogs.  An  Act  of  1489  recites 
that  "  in  some  places,  where  two  hundred  persons  used  to 
live  by  their  lawful  labour,  now,  only  two  or  three  herds- 
men are  needed,  and  the  rest  fall  into  idleness."  The 
further  conversion  of  arable  land  into  pasture  was  there- 
fore prohibited  ;  but  there  were  frequent  complaints  of 
the  practice  until  the  time  of  Edward  VI.  To  this  Bacon 
refers  in  his  Sixteenth  Essay  : — "  Money  is  like  muck  ; 
no  good  except  it  be  spread.  This  is  done  chiefly  by 
suppressing,  or,  at  the  least,  keeping  a  straight  hand 
upon  the  devouring  trades  of  usury,  ingrossing,  great 
pasturages,  and  the  like." 

Mention  is  made  in  existing  accounts  of  payments  for 
destroying  rats  and  moles.  Stoats,  wolves,  and  foxes 
committed  great  depredations.  The  dense  woods  and 
forests,  and  the  vast  tracts  of  common  heath  land, 
furnished  harbour  for  swarms  of  rabbits,  hares,  pheasants, 
and  other  game.  The  rate  of  produce  varied  greatly, 
but  the  average  yield  was  only  one-fourth  of  that  of  the 
present  day.  Absolute  failure  of  crops  was  rare.  The 
only  famine  year  mentioned  between  the  two  great  and 
terrible  dearths  of  1316  and  1527  is  in  1438,  when  wheat 
was  14s.  7^>d.  a  quarter;  or  five  times  the  average  price. 
Extracts  given  by  Professor  Thorold  Rogers,  in  his 
exhaustive  'History  of  Agriculture  and  Prices,'  taken 
from  the  muniments  of  Merton  College,  Oxford,  show 
the  field-produce  in  1 333-1 336  of  lands  belonging  to  that 
foundation.  Wheat  sown  at  Maldon  returned  only  four 
times  its  own  quantity ;  at  Leatherhead,  less  than  three 
times  ;  at  Gamlingay,  a  little  more  than  twice  ;  at  Cux- 
ham,  six  and  a  half  times ;  at  Holywell,  nearly  ei^ht 
times ;  and  at  Basingstoke,  three  times  the  quantities 
sown.  Generally  speaking,  only  one  quarter  an  acre  was 
reaped,    and   sometimes    less.     A   similar    disproportion 


326     AGRICULTURE,  TRAVELLING,  ETC.  [chap.  XX. 

appears  with  barley,  oats,  rye,  beans,  and  pease.  After 
harvest,  pigs  and  geese  were  turned  into  the  stubble. 
Pigs  were  the  common  scavengers  of  the  villages.  Every 
peasant  seems  to  have  had  one,  at  the  least,  in  his  sty,  or 
fattening  upon  acorns  and  beech  nuts  in  the  woods. 
Poultry  keeping  was  universal.  Fowls  and  eggs  were  a 
kind  of  currency  for  paying  dues.  Mills  were  usually 
owned  by  lords  of  manors,  and  were  worked  either  by 
water  or  wind.  On  most  manors,  the  sole  right  of 
grinding  corn,  and  sometimes  also  the  right  of  making 
malt,  was  vested  in  the  lord.  This  continued  to  be  the 
case  for  centuries.  The  mill  machinery,  though  simple, 
was  expensive ;  too  much  so  for  a  private  freeholder  to 
incur.  The  average  price  of  a  millstone  in  1320  was 
twelve  shillings  and  sixpence,  and  in  1360,  fifteen  and 
fivepence.  In  the  same  year,  foreign  stones,  which  were 
deemed  to  be  of  superior  make  and  longer  wear,  cost 
forty-four  and  fifty-six  shillings  respectively.  Weights 
and  measures  were  regulated  by  standard  models ; 
jealously  guarded  under  seal  by  the  local  authorities. 

The  maintenance  of  roads  and  bridges  was  one  of  those 
general  charges  which  weighed,  like  military  service,  on 
the  landowners.  In  theory,  they  watched  over  the  con- 
dition of  the  highways,  in  return  for  certain  dues  and 
tolls.  In  practice,  their  tenants  executed  the  repairs. 
The  religious  houses,  by  virtue  of  their  landed  proprietor- 
ship, had  to  undertake  their  share  of  this  public  duty. 
No  trace  has  been  found  in  England  of  Bridge-Friars,  or 
ecclesiastical  fraternities  for  that  special  purpose,  such  as 
existed  on  the  Continent ;  but  the  work  of  constructing 
highways  and  bridges,  and  keeping  them  in  repair,  was 
deemed  pious  and  meritorious,  like  the  sinking  gf  a 
well  or  the  opening  of  a  fountain  in  Oriental  countries. 
Indulgences  were  sometimes  granted  to  those  who 
rendered  pecuniary  help  or  bodily  labour  for  such  pur- 
poses. Lay  brotherhoods  existed  for  this  object ;  like 
the  Guild  of  the  Holy  Cross,  founded  in  the  time  of 
Richard  II.  Land  was  often  bestowed  on  abbeys  and 
nunneries  on  condition  of  adjacent  roads  and  bridges 
being  kept  in  order.  Chantries  were  found  on  certain 
bridges,  like  London,  Bow,  Rotherham,  St.  Ives,  Brad- 
ford-on- A  von,     and     Wakefield;     and     the     first-named 


A.D.  1 200-1400.]  ROADS  AND  BRIDGES.  327 

bridge  was  famous  for  generations  for  its  shops.  In 
other  instances,  bridges  were  built  by  private  persons 
under  a  royal  charter,  with  power  to  levy  tolls,  not  only 
on  passengers,  vehicles,  and  animals,  but  on  all  commo- 
dities. When  the  tolls  were  honestly  applied,  they  not 
only  sufficed  to  maintain  the  structure,  but  they  yielded 
large  profits  to  the  owner.  The  corresponding  obligation 
was  not  always  discharged  by  the  recipient  of  the  money. 
Henry  III.  granted  to  his  wife  the  farm  of  the  revenues 
of  London  Bridge.  She  appropriated  without  scruple 
the  whole  of  the  receipts,  but  allowed  the  bridge  to  fall 
into  decay,  and  it  had  to  be  renovated  by  public  sub- 
scription, and  thert  by  a  tax,  or  kind  of  octroi,  on  goods 
brought  into  the  City. 

Numerous  cases  are  on  record  of  inquisitions  held  and 
of  law  proceedings  in  the  fourteenth  century  to  deter- 
mine who  was  liable  for  expenses  of  the  kind ;  both  for 
bridges  and  roads.  The  latter,  excepting  where  they 
followed  the  course  of  the  Roman  roads,  or  where  they 
had  been  constructed  with  proper  care  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  important  places,  were  frequently  mere  tracks, 
with  no  solid  bed  or  efficient  drainage,  and  liable  to  be 
almost  obliterated  by  heavy  rains.  Under  the  best  cir- 
cumstances passengers  were  smothered  in  dust.  Under 
the  worst,  they  were  bespattered  with  mud,  if  they 
succeeded  in  forcing  their  way ;  which  was  not  always 
the  case.  The  meeting  of  the  Parliament  of  1339  was 
delayed,  because  so  few  of  the  members  could  reach 
Westminster  in  time,  owing  to  the  bad  roads  during  a 
storm.  The  road  out  of  London  to  Dover  had  the  most 
traffic.  Dover  was  still  the  principal  seaport  for  the 
Continent,  and  the  King  derived  a  large  sum  yearly 
from  tolls  levied  on  all  persons  arriving  or  departing. 
Communication  between  distant  parts  of  the  country  was 
slow,  difficult,  and  expensive.  Ordinary  persons  did  as 
they  best  could ;  waiting  and  watching  for  convenient 
and  safe  opportunities.  The  wealthy  had  couriers  and 
messengers.  The  King  usually  had  several  in  attendance, 
ready  to  start  at  a  moment's  notice.  The  Household 
and  Wardrobe  Ordinances  of  Edward  II.,  for  1323,  con- 
tain entries  of  threepence  a  day  paid  to  twelve  messengers 
on  the  road,  and  of  four  shillings  and  eightpence  a  year 


328     AGRICULTURE,  TRAVEJ..L/N J,  ^  fC.  lCHap.  xx. 

to  buy  shoes.  They  were  employed  to  carry  letters  to 
France,  Scotland,  and  other  countries;  to  summon  the 
nobles  and  prelates  to  Great  Councils;  to  deliver  Pro- 
clamations to  the  sheriffs,  and  to  perform  miscellaneou: 
functions  when  publicity  was  needful.  In  1378,  the 
Commons  remonstrated  against  the  large  expenses  in- 
curred in  this  way,  which  they  thought  should  be  borne 
by  the  King  himself.  Strange  packages  were  occasionally 
carried,  as  in  1378,  when  Edward  III.  paid  not  less  than 
twenty  pounds  for  transporting  to  various  towns  the 
dismembered  limbs  of  a  knight  who  had  been  executed 
for  treason.  The  royal  messengers  had  special  privileges 
and  immunities.  To  detain  or  interfere  with  them  was 
penal.  Swiftness  was  specially  rewarded,  and  it  was  the 
custom  to  make  presents  to  such  as  brought  good  tidings, 
as  in  ancient  times.  With  the  growth  of  trade  and  the 
increase  of  trafific,  measures  were  taken  to  clear  the  roads 
leading  to  great  cities  of  the  banditti  and  footpads  who 
infested  them  ;  one  plan  being  to  order  a  space  of  two 
hundred  feet  on  each  side  to  be  kept  open,  so  as  to  afford 
no  cover. 

Country  carts  were  heavy  and  cumbrous  boxes  on 
massive  wheels,  without  springs.  They  were  made  to 
resist  the  holes  and  ruts  so  continually  met  with.  The 
average  price  of  a  hired  cart  was  a  penny  per  ton  per 
mile.  For  light  goods  and  perishable  articles,  pack- 
horses  were  largely  used,  and  continued  to  be  so  for 
centuries.  Now  and  then,  what  was  described  as  a 
"great  carriage"  groaned  and  creaked  along  with  the 
ladies  and  children  of  a  wealthy  family ;  but  it  was  really 
a  tilted  van,  of  rough  construction,  devoid  of  sprinus, 
furnished  with  such  things  as  the  taste  and  means  of  the 
owners  devised.  Horse-litters  were  sometimes  used  by 
ladies  of  rank.  These  contrivances  were  furnished  with 
shafts  before  and  behind,  and  in  each  set  a  horse  was 
harnessed.  But  riding  on  horseback  was  the  usual 
method  of  travelling  with  persons  of  any  position. 
Ladies,  as  well  as  men,  rode  astride.  The  side-saddle 
was  not  in  common  use  even  at  the  close  of  the  four- 
teenth century.  Anne  of  Bohemia,  Queen  of  Richard 
II.,  is  credited  with  its  introduction.  England  was  not 
celebrated  for  its  native  breed  of  horses,  even  after  the 


A.D.  1200-1400.]    PERILS  OF  THE  ROAD.     _  3^9 

care  taken  by  the  Cistercians.  Those  most  prized  were 
imported  from  the  Continent.  The  ordinary  value 
ranged  from  one  to  ten  pounds.  A  white  horse  was 
most  esteemed ;  next  to  that,  a  dapple  grey  or  a  chest- 
nut. To  be  a  skilful  rider  was  a  high  accomplishment ; 
and  another  was  to  be  able  to  vault  into  the  saddle 
without  touching  the  stirrup.  Travelling  was  attended 
with  many  inconveniences,  and  was  often  dangerous  as 
well  as  difficult.  Traders  could  not  venture  through 
England  with  their  merchandize,  unless  attended  by  a 
large  armed  escort.  Persons  formed  themselves  into 
caravans  for  mutual  protection  when  about  to  undertake 
a  long  journey,  or  to  cross  a  forest  or  a  heath.  The 
perils  were  greater  to  that  numerous  class  who  had  to 
travel  on  foot,  and  who  could  not  always  ensure  reaching 
a  place  where  lodgings  might  be  found.  Not  only  were 
there  dangers  from  bandits  and  outlaws,  but  knights, 
landed  gentry,  and  noblemen  connived  at  their  depend- 
ants practising  highway  robbery ;  and  shared  in  the 
plunder.  They  also  levied  black-mail  on  all  who  crossed 
bridges  or  fords  in  the  vicinity  of  their  castles,  like  the 
robber  barons  on  the  Rhine.  On  the  slightest  pretext, 
the  traveller  was  stripped  of  his  property,  or  thrust  into 
a  dungeon  until  the  exactions  of  these  titled  brigands 
were  complied  with. 

Many  monasteries  held  large  estates  subject  to  the 
duty  of  entertaining  wayfarers,  or  giving  doles  at  the 
gates  every  day.  A  satire  of  the  time  tells  of  a  miserly 
and  inhospitable  abbot  who  appointed  like-minded 
persons  to  offices  under  him ;  especially  to  the  charge 
of  the  guest-house.  Only  the  very  poor  or  the  rich  were 
thus  entertained  in  religious  houses.  For  the  former, 
separate  provision  was  usually  made  outside,  where  they 
were  sheltered  and  fed  for  charity.  The  latter  were 
admitted  within  the  monastery,  and  were  sumptuously 
entertained,  for  a  consideration.  Persons  of  their  own 
rank  also  welcomed  travellers  as  guests.  The  common 
inns,  few  in  number,  and  poor  in  accommodation,  were 
not  good  enough  for  such,  but  found  their  customers 
among  travelling  merchants  and  packmen.  Complaints 
were  common  of  the  "  great  and  outrageous  cost  of 
victuals,   kept   up   in   all   the  realm    by  inn-keepers   and 


330     A  CRICUL  TURK,  TRA  VELLING,  E  TC.  [cha  p.  xx. 

other  retailers,  to  the  great  detriment  of  people  travelUng 
across  the  realm."  Statutes  intended  to  remedy  the 
evil  were  passed  in  1350,  in  1354,  and  at  other  times. 
These  places  often  had  an  unsavoury  reputation.  The 
'  Vision  of  Piers  Ploughman  '  gives  a  picture,  in  the  style 
of  Rabelais,  of  the  disorderly  scenes  that  took  place. 
London  and  all  the  large  towns  swarmed  with  thieves 
and  other  bad  characters.  Now  and  then,  a  raid  was 
made  upon  them,  and  a  score  or  two  swung  on  gibbets ; 
but  for  the  most  part  they  defied  the  community.  Not 
until  1494  were  justices  of  the  peace  entrusted  with  a 
rudimentary  power  to  license  and  to  suppress  ale-houses. 
These  functionaries  were  first  appointed  by  the  Crown, 
under  a  Statute  of  1327  ;  in  succession  to  the  ancient 
conservators  chosen  by  the  freeholders  in  each  county. 

The  legal  and  judicial  reforms  begun  in  the  time  of 
Henry  II.  had  not  accomplished  all  that  was  necessary. 
Other  reforms  attempted  under  Edward  I.,  as  indicated 
in  the  sixteenth  chapter,  were  not  undertaken  before 
they  were  urgently  required.  Nor  was  the  object  at 
once  achieved.  As  in  ancient  days,  men  commonly  did 
what  seemed  right  in  their  own  eyes.  Among  the  upper 
classes,  instances  of  lawlessness,  private  feuds,  encroach- 
ments upon  neighbours'  lands,  violent  seizures  of  their 
cattle,  cutting  down  their  timber,  and  similar  acts  of 
rapacity,  virtually  amounting  to  highway  robbery  and 
burglary,  were  far  from  uncommon.  The  sanctity  of 
churches  was  not  infrequently  invaded.  Disputes,  brawls, 
and  personal  violence  in  such  buildings  are  continually 
mentioned.  The  cathedrals  and  abbeys  were  not  exempt 
from  factions  and  quarrels.  Some  were  ludicrous ;  as 
when  the  precentor  of  York  Minster,  on  a  public  occasion 
of  solemn  ceremony,  stopped  the  music  to  spite  the 
treasurer,  who  then  ordered  the  wax  lights  to  be  ex- 
tinguished, to  revenge  himself  on  the  precentor.  Some- 
times the  disputes  were  serious;  as  in  1327,  when  an 
alderman  of  London  attacked  a  foreign  prebendary  in 
St.  Paul's,  dragging  him  from  his  seat  and  breaking  his 
pate.  Repeated  instances  occur  of  sacred  edifices  being 
temporarily  closed  for  re-consecration,  because  of  blood- 
shed and  murder  perpetrated  within  their  precincts. 
The    right   of    sanctuary   was    often    violated,    although 


A.D.  I200-I400.]  FEUDS  AND  LAWLESSNESS.         331 

heavy  penalties  attached  to  this,  besides  spiritual  censures 
and  penances.  The  example  thus  set  was  diligently 
copied — it  could  not  be  improved  upon — by  persons 
beneath  these  offenders  in  the  social  scale.  The  strong 
arm  generally  prevailed.  Redress  for  grievances,  real  or 
imaginary,  was  promptly  taken ;  often  with  usury. 
Fights,  riots,  plunder,  and  incendiarism  continually 
occurred.  Sometimes,  these  were  suppressed,  and  the 
perpetrators  were  punished.  More  frequently,  they 
escaped,  or  no  notice  was  taken.  Existing  records  give 
long  catalogues  of  brutal  crimes  and  of  equally  brutal 
punishments  that  are  simply  horrible ;  while  for  common 
offences  and  slight  misconduct  the  sentences  were  usually 
merciless  in  their  severity. 

The  ordinary  state  of  things  may  be  judged  of  from 
a  complaint  made  in  1342  by  some  Lichfield  merchants 
to  their  lord  ;  the  Earl  of  Arundel.  They  had  sent  to 
Stafford  market  two  servants  and  two  horses  laden  with 
spicery  and  mercery.  At  Cannock  Wood  they  were  met 
by  a  knight  and  two  squires,  who  seized  them,  and  took 
them  to  a  neighbouring  priory,  where  several  other 
knights  were  waiting  by  arrangement.  These  shared 
the  plunder  with  the  captors,  and  all  rode  on  to  another 
priory,  but  were  refused  admittance.  They  broke  into 
the  barns,  obtained  provender  for  their  horses,  and 
prepared  to  stay  the  night.  One  of  the  two  servants 
managed  to  escape  back  to  Lichfield,  and  gave  notice 
to  the  bailiff,  who  assembled  his  men  for  the  pursuit 
of  the  robbers.  When  they  were  met,  a  fight  occurred ; 
four  of  them  were  killed,  and  the  stolen  goods  recovered. 
On  his  way  back,  the  bailiff  and  his  party  were  again 
assailed,  and  once  more  the  property  changed  hands. 
The  merchants,  on  hearing  what  had  been  done,  sought 
for  justice;  but,  on  going  for  this  purpose  to  Stafford, 
they  found  at  the  city  gates  some  retainers  of  the  robber- 
knights,  who  not  only  obstructed  the  passage,  but 
grievously  maltreated  them.  So  they  had  to  return 
to  Lichfield  without  redress,  and  they  laid  the  whole 
matter  before  the  Earl  of  Arundel ;  with  what  result 
History  does  not  record.  Nor  is  this  by  any  means  a 
solitary  example.  Numerous  complaints  were  addressed 
to  the  King  by  private  persons  as  to  acts  of  violence, 


332     AGRICULTURE,  TRAVELLING,  ETC.  [chap.  xx. 

and  robbery,  and  extortion  of  which  they  were  the 
victims ;  nor  was  the  scandal  abated  so  long  as  the 
baronial  power  continued,  with  the  hordes  of  retainers 
wearing  the  livery  of  particular  lords,  and  ready  for  any 
raid  that  promised  excitement  and  plunder. 

The  innocent  did  not  always  escape.  Cities  and  large 
towns  were  surrounded  by  walls,  and  the  gates  were 
rigorously  closed  at  sunset.  When  prowlers,  footpads, 
thieves,  and  other  bad  characters  were  numerous,  it 
was  enough  to  be  a  stranger  in  the  district,  especially 
at  night,  to  be  sent  to  gaol  on  suspicion,  under  some 
such  Statute  as  that  of  Edward  III.  in  1332.  So 
comprehensive  were  its  terms  that  the  power  to  arrest 
under  it  was  almost  illimitable.  Whoever  suspected 
a  stranger,  passing  by  night,  of  a  crime,  or  of  associating 
with  criminals,  might  have  him  arrested.  He  was  kept 
in  prison  until  the  next  gaol  delivery,  which  might  not 
occur  for  several  months,  unless  he  could  justify  himself 
and  prove  his  lawful  occupation.  (Even  now,  in  the 
United  States,  any  one  maliciously  accused  of  a  civil  or 
a  criminal  offence,  has  to  give  heavy  bail  to  stand  his 
trial,  or  go  to  prison.)  If  he  resisted,  or  ran  away,  a 
hue  and  cry  was  raised  from  street  to  street  and  from 
town  to  town,  and  he  was  almost  certain  to  be  stopped, 
or  to  fall  by  exhaustion.  All  the  people  had  an  interest 
or  found  a  pleasure  in  the  chase,  as  they  would  in  the 
pursuit  of  a  rabid  dog,  or  in  watching  a  cock-fight  or  a 
bear-baiting.  Times  were  hard,  and  manners  rough. 
The  fact  of  being  unknown  and  solitary  was  sufficient 
to  arouse  suspicion,  which  soon  deepened  into  antipathy. 
False  charges  were  sometimes  trumped  up.  In  1330, 
the  wife  of  Henry  of  Upatherle,  in  Gloucestershire,  set 
forth  in  a  petition  to  Edward  III.  that  her  husband  had 
been  made  prisoner  during  one  of  the  Scottish  wars, 
and  remained  captive  more  than  a  year.  While  away, 
two  neighbours  seized  on  his  fields ;  divided  them  ;  and 
removed  his  property.  When  the  owner  effected  his 
ransom,  and  returned,  one  of  the  men  raised  a  false 
charge  that  he  had  robbed  him  of  one  hundred  pounds' 
worth  of  chattels.  On  this  unfounded  charge  he  was 
imprisoned  in  Gloucester  Castle  for  a  long  time,  waiting 
the  assizes.     He  recovered  his  liberty,  and  commenced 


A.D.  I200-I400.]       SOCIAL  TYRANNY.  333 

proceedings  against  his  oppressors.  They  "beat  the 
said  Henry  in  the  town  of  Gloucester ;  that  is,  they 
bruised  his  two  arms,  both  his  thighs,  and  both  his 
legs,  and  his  head,"  with  other  violent  acts.  This  is 
significant  of  the  manners  of  the  time,  and  incidentally 
reveals  the  legal  position  of  women.  The  reply  to  the 
petition  was  that  the  wife  had  no  remedy. 

A  spirit  of  vengeance  predominated  in  the  punish- 
ments of  the  Middle  Ages.  Law  was  vindictive,  and 
sentences  were  revolting.  Savage  ferocity  in  criminals 
met  with  savage  retaliation,  which,  instead  of  deterring, 
instigated  wrong-doers  to  greater  atrocities.  Imprison- 
ment pending  trial  was  harsh  and  brutal,  as  it  continued 
to  be  for  centuries.  Nor  is  the  reproach  yet  wholly 
removed.  The  dungeons  into  which  accused  persons 
were  thrust  were  damp,  dark,  and  filthy.  It  was  not 
mere  detention,  to  prevent  escape,  but  inhuman  incar- 
ceration, under  conditions  of  peculiar  hardship  and 
suffering,  of  persons  not  proved  guilty,  who  were  secluded 
for  months.  Such  rough  treatment  spared  many  a 
public  trial ;  for  there  was  a  constant  gaol-delivery  by 
epidemics  and  starvation.  The  gallows,  the  stocks,  and 
the  pillory,  never  far  from  the  baronial  doors,  were 
seldom  without  miserable  occupants.  The  ghastly  re- 
currence of  capital  punishment  tended  to  make  people 
callous.  Hanging  went  on  at  a  pace  and  to  an  extent 
that  are  now  inconceivable.  The  criminal  law  was  an 
awful  and  tremendous  piece  of  mechanism  for  the 
condemnation  and  execution  of  all  who  were  held 
dangerous  to  persons,  and,  still  more,  to  property. 
Thieving  was  deemed  worse  than  a  bodily  assault ;  as 
is  yet  the  case.  Such  treatment  led  to  human  life 
being  held  in  low  estimation.  This  lasted  down  to 
recent  times,  for  there  were  incessant  additions  to 
the  Statutes  by  which  numerous  petty  crimes  were 
made  felonies,  until,  at  length,  more  than  two  hundred 
offences  were  ])unishable  with  death.  The  pillory  was 
the  punishment  for  fraud,  false  measures,  adulteration, 
cheating,  slander,  scolding,  selling  putrid  fish,  and  nume- 
rous other  offences ;  the  rough  pelting  by  the  mob 
often  proving  fatal. 

As    Might   and    Right   were   synonymous  terms,    each 


334     AGRICULTURE,  TRAVELLING,  ETC.  [chap.  xx. 

man  sought  to  strengthen  himself  by  finding  powerful 
foster-fathers  and  patrons  for  his  sons.  They  took  an 
honourable  kind  of  service  in  families  of  higher  rank 
or  greater  wealth,  where  it  was  supposed  the  manners 
and  accomplishments  of  gentlemen  were  to  be  learned 
in  perfection.  These  young  squires  and  pages  served 
at  table,  and  performed  what  would  now  be  called 
menial  offices  to  the  lord  and  ladies  of  the  household. 
They  took  part  in  all  the  amusements  and  recreations, 
and  were  instructed  in  what  were  then  deemed  to  be  gentle- 
manly manners  and  accomplishments.  This  was  a  kind 
of  apprenticeship  introductory  to  knighthood.  Daughters 
served  under  ladies  of  rank,  who  prided  themselves  on 
having  a  number  of  these  bower-maidens.  They  were 
not  only  a  means  of  ostentatious  display,  but  they  were 
profitable.  Besides  attending  on  the  personal  wants 
of  their  mistresses,  they  were  employed  in  cooking, 
spinning,  weaving,  millinery,  embroidery,  and  similar 
labours,  requisite  for  furnishing  the  large  number  of 
persons  who  depended  upon  their  lord  for  "  liveries." 
This  system  prevailed  as  early  as  the  time  of  Henry  II., 
and  probably  before.  Private  tutors  were  chosen  from 
among  the  clergy,  to  give  perfunctory  instruction  to 
children  of  noble  families  at  home,  and  there  were 
schools  connected  with  cathedrals.  Many  of  the  old 
ecclesiastical  foundations  had  been  partly  designed  for 
purposes  of  education ;  and,  in  particular,  to  train 
children  for  the  priesthood.  Then  the  monasteries 
entered  into  rivalry,  in  this  as  in  other  matters.  The 
instruction  given  in  both  had  the  impress  peculiar  to 
them.  What  was  termed  "  profane  learning  "  was  sub- 
ordinated to  the  teaching  of  the  Fathers,  to  the  mys- 
ticism of  the  age,  to  the  lives  of  Saints,  and  to  alleged 
miracles  ;  faith  in  which  was  so  widely  prevalent. 

The  name  of  William  of  Wykeham  (i 324-1404), 
Bishop  of  the  diocese,  with  his  famous  motto,  "  Manners 
makyth  manne,"  is  honourably  associated  with  the 
revival  and  the  extension  of  educational  work.  He 
loved  learning ;  was  a  munificent  patron  of  the  arts, 
took  a  special  interest  in  architecture,  supervised  the 
rebuilding  of  Windsor  Castle  for  Edward  III.,  and,  at 
his   own    cost,    restored   Winchester   Cathedral ;   a  work 


A.D.  I200  1400.]  EDUCATION.  335 

that  occupied  ten  years.  He  was  Lord  Chancellor,  and 
filled  other  high  offices.  He  applied  himself  with  zeal 
and  diligence  to  the  reformation  of  abuses  in  the  monas- 
teries and  reli;;ious  houses  throughout  his  large  diocese. 
He  rescued  the  ancient  Hospital  of  St.  Cross,  founded 
in  1 132  by  Bishop  Henry  de  Blois,  from  the  neglect 
and  waste  into  which  it  had  fallen  ;  but  it  subsequently 
became  the  prey  of  other  spoilers,  and  one  of  the  most 
scandalous  instances  of  clerical  rapacity  and  malversation. 
He  commenced  a  school  or  college  of  his  own  in  Win- 
chester in  1373,  "for  the  honour  of  God  and  increase 
of  his  worship,  for  the  support  and  exaltation  of  the 
Christian  faith,  and  for  the  improvement  of  the  liberal 
arts  and  sciences."  Twenty  years  later,  the  buildings 
erected  by  him  in  his  episcopal  city  were  opened  for  the 
use  of  a  warden,  two  masters,  and  seventy  scholars.  Eton 
was  not  founded  until  1440  by  Henry  VI.  The  primary 
intention  was  to  train  clerics,  with  a  view  to  replenish 
the  supply  of  regular  clergy,  and  thus  strengthen  thf 
anti-monastic  element.  Provision  was  also  made  for  a 
number  of  "  commoners,"  who  were  to  receive  the  same 
teaching,  but  with  a  view  to  occupations  outside  the 
Church.  This  was  the  beginning  of  the  public  school 
system  of  England ;  although,  as  stated  above,  there 
were  earlier  educational  institutions  connected  with 
cathedrals,  monasteries,  and  chantries.  Wykeham's  two- 
fold foundation  had  the  great  advantage  of  starting 
with  munificent  support.  He  endowed  it  partly  by 
being  allowed  by  the  Pope  to  suppress  certain  monas- 
teries, with  what  was  then  the  great  income  of  one 
thousand  pounds  a  year,  and  he  established  a  close 
alliance  between  it  and  his  other  munificent  foundation 
of  New  College  at  Oxford.  By  the  year  1400,  seventy- 
eight  colleges  and  one  hundred  and  ninety-two  hospitals 
had  been  founded.  The  following  century  added  sixty 
schools  and  charitable  foundations,  including  the  munifi- 
cent endowments  of  Waynflete,  Bishop  of  Winchester 
and  Lord  Chancellor  (d.  i486) ;  as  against  no  more  than 
eight  religious  houses.  Like  too  many  of  the  old  edu- 
cational and  charitable  foundations,  \\'ykeham's  decayed 
through  waste  and  mismanagement  ;  and  it  has  been 
rescued  only  in  recent  times,  and  restored  to  public  use. 


336     AGRICULTURE,  TRA  YELLING,  ETC.  [chap.  XX. 

Universities,  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  term,  date  from 
the  twelfth  century,  although  some  had  existed  for  a  long 
period  in  an  inchoate  form,  under  the  name  of  Schools. 
Primarily  a  University  is  only  an  association  for  the 
promotion  of  learning.  The  scholars  came  first,  and  the 
material  fabric  rose  afterwards.  Oxford  and  Cambridge 
were  famous  as  seats  of  learning  before  the  first-named 
was  recognised  in  the  time  of  Richard  I.  as  an  establish- 
ment of  the  same  rank  as  the  University  of  Paris.  The 
learning  there  acquired  by  some  of  the  most  distinguished 
prelates  and  higher  clergy,  led  to  attempts  being  made  to 
furnish  similar  appliances  for  instruction  in  England. 
Archbishops  Baldwin  (d.  1190)  and  Hubert  (d.  1205)  are 
honourably  remembered  for  their  attempts  to  establish 
at  Lambeth  a  centre  of  ecclesiastical  learning  and  dignity; 
free  from  monastic  restrictions.  Archbishop  Theobald 
(1139-1161)  supported  with  munificence  a  school  of  litera- 
ture in  the  same  place.  He  provided  learned  teachers  ; 
and  when  the  pupils  were  sufficiently  advanced,  sent 
them  at  his  own  charges  to  Paris  or  Bologna.  Other 
prelates  rendered  a  like  service.  Edmund  Rich,  of 
Abingdon,  afterwards  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  de- 
serves special  mention  for  his  work  at  Oxford.  It  was 
he  who  introduced  Roger  Bacon  to  the  study  of  Aristotle. 
Bishop  Grosseteste  and  Archbishop  Bradwardine  also 
rendered  signal  service  to  the  cause  of  education.  The 
fact  of  Oxford  being  an  occasional  royal  residence  may 
have  helped  to  fix  the  University  there ;  but,  as  Freeman 
remarks,  it  "  has  no  foundation,  and  no  founder.  It  grew 
up  from  a  seed  cast  at  random."  Increasing  zeal  for  the 
learning  of  the  times  led  to  the  founding  and  endow- 
ment of  the  colleges  whose  names  are  so  familiar. 

The  earliest  of  these,  at  Oxford,  was  established  in 
1270  by  Walter  de  Merton,  the  Chancellor;  being  re- 
moved from  his  Surrey  birthplace.  He  fxpressly  stipu- 
lated that  all  benefits  of  his  endowment  should  be  forfeited 
if  the  fellows  entered  any  religious  order ;  so  intense 
was  his  dislike  and  dread  of  monastic  appropriations. 
Exeter  was  founded  in  1314;  Oriel,  in  1326;  Queen's, 
in  1340;  New,  in  1386;  and  Lincoln,  All  Souls,  and 
Magdalen  in  the  next  century.  University  and  Balliol, 
which   now  rank   as  the  oldest,  were  halls  supported  by 


A.D.  I2CO-I400.]     THE  UNIVERSITIES.  337 

endowments  for  the  maintenance  of  students.  From  an 
early  period  it  was  their  practice  to  Uve  in  common  in 
halls  or  hostels,  under  the  charge  of  a  tutor.  Cambridge 
had  no  fewer  than  thirty-four  such  halls  in  1280.  Its 
earliest  college,  Peterhouse,  was  founded  in  1257,  or, 
according  to  some,  in  1284,  by  Hugh  de  Balsham,  Bishop 
of  Ely ;  the  next,  Clare,  originally  a  hall,  by  the  Countess 
of  Clare,  in  1326;  Pembroke,  in  1347,  by  the  widow  of 
Aymer  de  Valence,  Earl  of  Pembroke ;  Gonville,  in 
1348,  to  which  was  added  Caius  in  1558.  Michael  House, 
established  by  Hervey  de  Stanton  in  1324,  and  King's 
Hall,  by  Edward  HI.  in  1332,  were  absorbed  into  Trinity 
College  by  Henry  VHI.  in  1546.  Trinity  Hall,  the 
creation  of  William  Bateman,  Bishop  of  Norwich,  dates 
back  to  1350.  Corpus  Christi,  or  Benedict,  was  con- 
solidated two  years  later.  Henry  VI.  has  left  himself  an 
imperishable  monument  in  King's  College,  1441,  and  his 
wile,  Margaret,  commenced  Queen's.  The  Lady  Margaret, 
Countess  of  Richmond  and  Derby,  mother  of  Henry  VII., 
founded  both  Christ's  and  St.  John's  in  the  first  decade 
of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  also  the  Divinity  Professor- 
ships that  still  bear  her  name. 

In  process  of  time  both  Universities  acquired  a  semi- 
monastic  character,  and  w'ere  treated,  first,  as  private 
preserves  for  ecclesiastics,  and  then,  as  exclusive  semi- 
naries for  nominal  adherents  of  the  Established  Church. 
The  tutorial  system  within  the  colleges  was  almost  entirely 
substituted  for  instruction  by  the  University  professors  ; 
who,  for  two  centuries  prior  to  1852,  when  a  Royal  Com- 
mission was  appointed  to  inquire  and  report,  had  for  the 
most  part  nominal  duties,  and  very  little  to  do  with 
academical  education  or  discipline.  During  the  last 
forty  years,  great  changes  and  improvements  have  been 
effected,  with  a  view  to  restore  the  national  character  of 
the  Universities,  and  to  utilize  their  vast  pecuniary  and 
literary  wealth.  The  statement  of  some  old  writers,  that 
Oxford  had  thirty  thousand  students  in  the  fourteenth 
century,  is  now  exploded.  It  is  one  of  the  vague  and 
improbable  generalities  so  commonly  met  with.  Lyte 
puts  the  number  at  four  thousand,  and  Brodrick  at  from 
two  to  three  thousand  ;  either  of  which  is  more  probable. 
The  need  for  general  education  was  not  then  felt. 
24 


338     AGRICULTURE,  TRAVELLING,  ETC.  [chap.  xx. 

Readers  were  few  ;  and  fewer  still  could  write.  Some  of 
the  old  grammar  schools,  however,  belong  to  the  thir- 
teenth century,  when  prosperous  merchants,  settled  in 
London  and  elsewhere,  thus  remembered  their  native 
places,  or  when  the  merchant  guilds,  by  whom  some  of 
these  schools  were  established,  began  to  assume  greater 
importance  with  growing  wealth.  The  schools  were 
usually  intended  for  the  benefit  of  all  the  youth  of  the 
town,  but  were  often  combined  with  an  ecclesiastical 
foundation  for  saying  Masses  for  the  reuose  of  the  souls 
of  the  founders.  They  were  afterwards  brought,  by  a 
technical  construction,  within  the  category  of  "  super- 
stitious uses,"  and  most  of  them  were  dissolved  and  the 
property  alienated  and  stolen  at  the  Reformation. 

The   period   of    National    Formation    thus   described, 
paved  the  way  for  a  further  period  of  Development. 


Period  IV.— DEVELOPMENT. 
A.D.  1327-1399. 

CHAPTER. 

21. — England  or  France  Predominant. 

22. — The  Black  Death  and  the  Statutes  op 
Labourers. 

23. — The  Protective  Spirit  and  Sumptuary 
Laws. 

24. — Rising  Power  of  Parliament. 

25. — "The  Morning  Star  of  the  Reformation." 

26. — The  English  Language. 

27. — The  Peasants'  Rising,  and  S6cial  Up- 
heavals. 


340  ENGLAND  AND  FRANCE.      [chap.  xxi. 

CHAPTER  XXI. 

ENGLAND    OR    FRANCE    PREDOMINAMT. 
A.D.     I327-I373. 

After  the  deposition,  but  before  the  murder  of  Edward 
II.,  hisson  was  proclaimed  as  Edward  III.  (b.  1312,  r.  1327- 
1377).  A  Parliament  was  convened  at  Westminster  on 
March  7,  1327.  Statutes  were  passed  to  secure,  amongst 
other  things,  a  Confirmation  of  the  Great  Charter  of 
Liberties,  of  the  Charters  of  Forests,  and  the  franchises 
and  customs  of  cities,  towns,  and  boroughs ;  and  for 
redressing  grievances  complained  of  in  matters  of  taxa- 
tion, alleged  trespass,  bishops'  temporalities,  military 
service,  and  the  administration  of  justice.  A  Council 
of  Regency  was  formed ;  the  King  being  only  fifteen 
years  of  age.  The  administrative  power  was  seized 
upon  by  the  Queen-Mother's  paramour,  Mortimer, 
who  had  acquired  most  of  the  confiscated  wealth  of  the 
Despensers.  Within  three  years  he  underwent  a  like 
fate  ;  the  result  of  Court  intrigues,  and  of  jealousy  among 
the  barons.  Another  struggle  occurred  with  Scotland ; 
ending  in  a  treaty  by  which  all  claims  to  supremacy 
were  renounced  on  the  part  of  the  monarchs  of  Eng- 
land. Edward's  eldest  sister  was  betrothed  to  the  son 
of  Robert  Bruce,  who,  in  consideration  of  this  treaty, 
was  to  pay  to  England  thirty  thousand  marks.  Bruce 
died  in  1329,  and  his  son  and  successor,  David,  brother-in- 
law  to  Edward,  after  some  trouble  with  his  phantom 
rival,  Edward  Baliol,  was  bribed  by  France  to  attempt  a 
diversion  in  the  North  of  England  in  1346.  He  was 
defeated  and  captured,  and  remained  a  prisoner  in  the 
Tower  of  London  for  eleven  years.  On  his  death,  the 
line  of  Stewart,  or  Stuart,  succeeded,  through  marriage 
with  his  only  daughter  ;  a  line  scarcely  without  parallel 
for  disaster,  wretchedness,  disgrace,  falsehood,  and  crime. 
It  is  a  pitiful  record ;  culminating  in  the  expulsion  of 
James  II.  from  the  English  throne  in  1688. 

Edward  III.,  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  successfully  asserted 
his  authority,  and  began  to  rule  as  well  as  to  reign.  He 
fully  emancipated  himself  from  his  mother;    one  of  the 


A.D.  I327-I373-]  CROWN  OF  FRANCE  CLAIMED.     341 

domineering  and  masterful  species  of  women.  She 
remained  in  honourable  captivity  for  nearly  thirty  years  at 
Castle  Rising,  until  her  death  in  1358.  He  soon  became 
embroiled  in  a  dispute  springing  out  of  his  claim  to  the 
throne  of  France ;  prosecuted,  at  intervals,  during  the 
whole  of  his  reign  of  fifty  years,  and  continued  fitfully 
for  seventy-five  years  longer  by  his  successors,  until,  at 
length,  the  possessions  held  or  acquired  since  Norman 
times — though  most  of  them  had  been  wrested  by 
Philip  II.  of  France  from  the  hands  of  John — were 
wholly  lost.  For  such  of  those  possessions  as  remained 
in  the  wide  region  known  as  Aquitaine,  Edward  III. 
had  rendered  homage,  while  yet  a  prince,  to  his  uncle, 
Charles  IV.  of  France,  as  his  predecessors  had  done. 
In  1328,  and  the  second  year  of  his  reign,  he  was  required 
by  the  new  King,  Philip  VI.,  or  de  Valois,  to  appear  in 
the  French  Court  and  repeat  the  unwelcome  feudal 
service.  He  complied,  as  a  matter  of  policy  ;  but  what 
he  then  saw  gave  fixedness  in  after  years  to  an  idea 
of  setting  up  for  himself  a  claim  to  the  throne  of  France. 
Not  until  1339  could  he  attempt  this  ;  but  diligent 
preparations  were  made  in  the  meantime  for  a  conflict 
that  became  as  relentless  as  the  Punic  Wars  between  Rome 
and  Carthage.  The  somewhat  hollow  plea  set  up  was 
through  his  mother,  Isabella,  daughter  of  Philip  IV.  of 
France,  commonly  styled  the  Fair.  His  three  sons,  who 
reigned  in  succession  between  13 14  and  1328,  left 
daughters  only.  By  the  Salic  law,  they  could  not 
succeed  to  the  throne.  It  was  claimed  by  Philip,  son 
of  Charles  de  Valois,  and  nephe*v  of  Philip  IV.,  but  was 
contested  by  Edward  III.,  under  the  pretext  that  though 
females  might  not  inherit,  they  could  transmit  the  suc- 
cession, and  that  he  was  in  the  nearest  line. 

The  cause  was  debated  before  an  assembly  of  the 
Estates  of  France,  which  decided  against  Edward. 
Probably  his  claim  would  have  lain  dormant,  but  from 
a  desire  to  save  from  French  control  the  great  Flemish 
cities  trading  with  England,  and  but  for  disputes  that 
arose  with  Philip  over  Scottish  affairs.  It  was  alleged 
that  he  perpetually  interfered  against  England,  and 
supplied  the  Scots  with  men,  money,  and  ships.  This 
was  the  proximate  cause  of  the  prolonged,  bitter,  costly, 


342  ENGLAND  AND  FRANCE.      [chap.  xxi. 

and  useless  struggle  that  ensued.  Edward  assumed  the 
title  of  King  of  France,  and  quartered  its  arms  with 
those  of  England  on  his  seal  and  ensign,  which  made 
the  quarrel  irreconcileable.  Urgent  appeals  to  Parlia- 
ment for  Aids  were  liberally  met,  care  being  taken  to 
avow  that  no  obedience  was  due  to  him  as  monarch  of 
France,  and  that  the  two  kingdoms  must  for  ever  remain 
distinct.  Happily  for  the  future  of  this  country,  the 
final  result  was  the  establishment  of  insular  independence. 
The  occasion  of  granting  the  Aids  was  also  seized  upon 
to  stipulate  for  the  removal  of  certain  grounds  of 
complaint  in  the  administration.  These  points  being 
conceded,  and  a  proviso  added  that  no  precedent  was 
established  for  future  Aids,  which  were  to  be  granted 
only  with  the  full  assent  of  Parliament,  that  body  entered 
as  warmly  and  as  improvidently  into  the  French  dispute 
as  Edward  himself.  The  national  vanity  was  aroused  ; 
as  has  been  the  case  so  often  in  wars  of  aggression 
and  conquest.  The  alliance  of  various  Continental 
princes  was  secured ;  partly  by  money — anticipating 
the  system  of  subsidies  that  was  perfected  by  Pitt — 
and  partly  by  working  on  their  fears  of  annexation  by 
France.  Mercenary  soldiers  were  hired  from  the  vagrant 
fighting  men  of  Europe  ;  but  reliance  was  chiefly  placed 
upon  the  English  freeholders,  who  served  for  wages,  as 
well  as  from  duty  to  the  lords  who  led  them.  Common 
pikemen  were  paid  twopence  per  day  ;  archers,  sixpence ; 
mounted  esquires,  a  shilling ;  knights,  two  shillings ; 
barons,  four  shillings  ;  and  earls,  six  and  eightpence. 

The  first  attempt,  in  the  Autumn  of  1339,  proved 
futile.  Both  armies  watched  each  other,  but  neither 
wished  to  commence  the  offensive,  and  Edward  with- 
drew into  Flanders.  In  the  following  June,  the  famous 
sea  Battle  of  Sluys  was  fought,  ending  in  the  total 
discomfiture  of  the  French  fleet ;  the  first  of  a  long  roll 
of  naval  victories  for  England.  Great  attention  had 
been  paid  to  her  naval  force  for  a  lengthened  period, 
owing  to  the  growth  of  the  mercantile  marine,  and  the 
rapid  increase  of  the  foreign  trade  in  wool.  Encouraged 
by  success,  Edward  assembled  another  army,  at  enormous 
cost :  defrayed  mainly  by  an  arbitrary  increase  of  the 
taxes  on  wool,  and  by  loans   raised   on    stringent   terms 


A.D.  1327-1373]     BATTLE  OF  CREqV.  343 

from  Italian  bankers.  The  cautious  tactics  again  resorted 
to  by  the  French  compelled  a  truce  for  five  years.  This 
was  but  partially  observed,  on  both  sides  ;  and  in  July, 
1346,  Edward  landed  at  La  Hogue,  in  Normandy,  with 
forty  thousand  followers ;  not  one-fourth  being  fighting- 
men.  The  rich  city  of  Caen  was  sacked.  Rouen  was 
threatened.  He  marched  nearly  to  Paris,  without 
encountering  any  material  resistance.  By  this  time, 
however,  one  hundred  thousand  French  had  assembled, 
and  Edward,  with  his  inferior  force,  was  in  danger  of 
being  hemmed  in.  In  this  critical  position,  his  only 
chance  was  to  retreat  upon  Flanders,  if  a  stand  proved 
unsuccessful  in  his  maternal  territory  of  Ponthieu.  He 
chose  a  strong  position  at  the  village  of  Cregy,  and  there 
awaited  an  attack,  which  was  made  on  Sunday,  August 
27,  1346.  It  resulted  in  the  total  defeat  of  the  French  ; 
due  to  the  superiority  of  the  English  archers — the  flight 
of  arrows  being  so  rapid,  "that  it  seemed  as  though  it 
snowed" — and  to  the  almost  impregnable  position.  If 
the  statements  as  to  the  respective  forces  be  correct,  the 
encounter  was  a  second  Marathon.  The  Florentine 
historian,  John  Villani,  who  died  only  two  years  after- 
wards, says  that  the  English  had  "  bombs,  which,  by 
means  of  fire,  darted  small  iron  balls  for  the  purpose  of 
affrighting  and  destroying  the  horses.  This  kind  of 
missile  caused  so  much  noise  and  tremor,  that  it  seemed 
like  thunder  from  heaven,  while  it  produced  great 
slaughter  among  the  soldiery  and  the  overthrow  of  their 
horses." 

Froissart  (1337-1410),  who  minutely  describes  the 
campaign,  is  silent  upon  this  subject,  though  he  men- 
tions it  somewhat  later.  It  is  indisputable  that  very 
small  cannon,  called  "  crakys  of  war,"  of  a  rude  kind 
resembling  mortars,  but  scarcely  larger  than  the  muskets 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  were  used  at  the  siege  of 
Quesnoy,  in  1340.  Their  employment  on  a  field  of 
battle  seems  to  have  first  taken  place  at  Cre^y.  The 
rudimentary  form  of  a  new  engine  of  warfare  was  intro- 
duced, made  of  iron  bars  hooped  together  with  iron 
rings,  and  destined  to  effect  a  revolution  in  military 
tactics.  The  process  of  casting,  and  the  use  of  bronze 
or  brass,  were  not  attained  until  the  end  of  the  fifteenth 


344  ENGLAND  AND  FRANCE.      [chap.  xxi. 

century.  In  the  earlier  days,  rough-hewn  circular  stones 
were  used  for  shot.  Then,  after  a  protracted  interval, 
the  invention  of  new  processes  in  steel  led  to  the  con- 
struction of  Minie  rifles  and  other  arms  of  precision,  and 
of  the  gigantic  Armstrong,  Krupp,  and  Gatling  guns  of 
recent  times,  and  to  the  rolling  of  massive  armour- 
plates  to  resist  their  impact.  But  the  general  use  of 
fire-arms  was  slow,  owing  to  difficulties  in  manufac- 
ture, and  to  the  imperfect  granulation  of  gunpowder. 
"^J'he  explosion  was  as  dangerous  to  the  assailants  as  to 
the  attacked.  James  11.  of  Scotland  was  killed  by  the 
bursting  of  one  of  these  clumsy  cannon  at  the  siege  of 
Roxburgh  Castle  in  August,  1437.  Personal  strength, 
bravery,  horsemanship,  and  skill  in  battle,  for  a  long 
time  contributed  mainly  to  victory.  A  man-at-arms 
was  a  complicated  and  cumbrous  machine,  heavily  clad 
in  mail,  and  mounted  on  a  great  war-horse,  caparisoned 
and  armed  as  strongly  as  his  rider ;  both  of  them  being 
helpless  when  hurled  down  by  the  shock  of  a  hostile 
encounter,  or  when  the  horse  was  disabled  by  the  terrible 
cloth-yard  shaft  which  English  archers  could  propel  for 
three  hundred  yards.  The  triumph  of  infantry  over 
heavy  cavalry  at  Cregy  was  the  death-knell  of  the  old 
system  of  warfare  that  had  dominated  Europe  for  four 
centuries. 

Five  days  after  the  battle,  Edward  III.  marched  to 
Calais,  and  invested  it.  For  nearly  a  year  it  stood  out ; 
but  capitulated  August  3,  1347,  when,  as  was  usual,  it 
was  given  over  to  pillage.  It  became  an  English  port, 
and  continued  so  until  1558.  Thus  one  of  the  most 
important  harbours  was  closed  against  the  pirates  who 
had  so  long  harassed  England,  and  protection  for  com- 
merce was  secured  in  the  Channel.  The  story  of  the 
burgesses,  with  halters  round  their  necks,  for  whom 
Queen  Philippa  interceded  with  her  husband,  if  not 
mythical,  is  highly  embellished ;  unless,  as  has  been 
suggested,  it  was  arranged  for  stage  effect.  Another 
truce  with  France  was  agreed  to,  and  renewed  from 
time  to  time,  because  it  was  convenient  to  postpone  any 
decisive  campaign.  Troubles  had  arisen  in  England ; 
mainly  out  of  the  strain  caused  by  the  expense  of  the 
war.     Edward  repudiated   the   express   conditions  of   the 


A.D.  1327-1373.]  GRIEVANCES.  345 

Parliamentary  grants  when  the  money  was  obtained. 
His  high  notions  of  chivalry  did  not  hinder  him  from 
repeatedly  violating  his  promises  to  his  subjects,  or  from 
deliberately  defrauding  the  Italian  bankers  who  lent  him 
money.  He  applied  pressure  on  various  occasions  to 
compel  merchants  to  make  what  were  called,  in  the 
sycophantic  language  of  the  time,  "free  gifts,"  and  also 
to  increase  the  Customs'  duties  on  merchandise,  levied 
solely  by  the  exercise  of  the  prerogative ;  as  in  the  case 
of  his  grandfather,  and  in  defiance  of  the  Legislature. 
Worse  things  were  apprehended.  In  the  Parliament  of 
January,  1348,  when  he  requested  advice- about  the  war 
with  France,  it  was  evaded ;  but  sixty-four  petitions  for 
the  redress  of  grievances  were  presented.  The  most 
urgent  related  to  the  vexatious  and  costly  method  of 
raising  troops,  or  money  to  pay  them,  by  Commissions 
of  Array  in  the  counties ;  to  the  irksome  monopolies  of 
wool  and  tin,  and  to  the  illegal  imposts  on  manufactured 
cloth.  The  reply  was  an  attempted  justification ;  on  the 
grounds  of  necessity,  of  prescription,  and  of  prerogative. 
Two  months  later,  in  answer  to  another  urgent  request 
for  money,  the  complaints  were  renewed,  with  stronger 
emphasis.  The  King  yielded;  but  only  verbally.  No  new 
Statute  was  framed,  but  the  coveted  grant  was  secured, 
although  again  the  conditions  were  not  fulfilled.  All 
that  Parliament  could  do  was  to  await  the  course  of 
events  with  such  patience  as  might  be  commanded,  and 
meanwhile,  continue  to  protest  and  complain.  Another 
reason  operated.  The  outbreak  of  the  Black  Death,  in 
1348,  thrust  aside  all  public  business  for  nearly  three 
years.  When  it  was  resumed,  Parliament  was  on  its 
guard,  because  the  royal  demands  did  not  abate,  nor 
were  the  royal  promises  trustworthy.  The  Rolls  of 
Parliament  are  missing  from  1356  to  1362;  but  in  the 
years  immediately  preceding  and  following  there  are 
constant  records  of  the  old  struggle  for  money  on  the 
side  of  the  King,  and  against  illegal  exactions  on  that  of 
the  people. 

The  embers  of  foreign  discord  still  smouldered  ;  ready 
to  break  out  under  slight  incitement.  France  had  also 
suffered  terribly  from  the  plague,  in  common  with  most 
European  countries.     Philip  of  Valois  died  in  1350,  and 


346  ENGLAND  AND  FRANCE.      [chap.  xxi. 

was  succeeded  by  his  son  John.  Edward  set  up  a  claim 
to  hold  his  ancient  French  possessions,  not  as  a  feudatory, 
but  of  sovereign  right.  The  troops  which  he  kept  there, 
chiefly  mercenaries,  were  ordered  in  1355  to  make  a  raid 
from  Guienne  through  the  rich  districts  of  Languedoc,  so 
as  to  weaken  the  French.  Another  object  was  that  they 
might  take  by  pillage  enough  to  cover  their  arrears  of 
pay.  Within  seven  weeks  it  was  boasted  that  five 
hundred  cities,  towns,  and  villages  in  France — probably 
an  exaggeration,  but  certainly  a  large  number — had  been 
sacked  and  burned.  Everything  portable  was  carried 
off.  Such  of  the  defenceless  inhabitants  as  could  not 
escape  or  ransom  themselves  were  ruthlessly  butchered. 
A  similar  marauding  expedition  took  place  in  the 
following  year  through  the  fertile  regions  of  Auvergne 
and  Limousin.  Fire,  rapine,  mutilation,  and  slaughter 
raged  on  all  sides.  The  leader  in  both  these  sanguinary 
enterprises  was  the  Prince  of  Wales  (b.  1330,  d.  1376),  to 
whom  had  been  entrusted  the  government  of  Guienne. 
His  familiar  appellation  of  the  Black  Prince  is  commonly 
supposed  to  have  arisen  from  the  colour  of  his  armour. 
It  is  more  probable  that  the  epithet,  Le  Noh%  first  given 
to  him  by  the  French,  was  a  Satanic  comparison,  due 
to  the  terror  inspired  by  his  ferocity.  It  is  certain  that 
they  had  cause  to  dread  the  approach  of  one  who  was 
designated  "the  pink  of  chivalry,"  and  whose  military 
ardour  remained  unquenched  though  human  blood 
flowed  in  torrents.  With  a  perversity  far  from  being 
singular,  he  has  been  eulogized  for  a  spirit  and  for  acts 
that  would  now  be  deemed  mean  and  brutal ;  while  his 
really  patriotic  services  in  the  time  of  the  Good  Parlia- 
ment of  1376,  when  his  own  life  was  ebbing  away,  are 
almost  ignored. 

That  this  severe  judgment  is  not  unmerited  will  appear 
from  one  other  and  later  instance,  in  137 1.  He  had 
sworn  a  great  oath  that  he  would  recapture  Limoges  ; 
the  capital  of  Limousin.  After  a  month's  siege,  a  wide 
breach  was  made,  and  the  city  was  stormed.  Men, 
women,  and  children  threw  themselves  at  his  feet, 
imploring  mercy.  No  prayers  and  no  promises  could 
mollify  him  towards  those  whose  only  crime  was  the 
brave  defence  of  their  lives,  liberty,  and  property.     He 


A.D.  I327-I373-]      FALSE  CHIVALRY.  347 

gave  orders,  in  the  spirit  of  that  Russian  butcher,  Ivan 
the  Terrible,  for  a  promiscuous  massacre  of  the  whole 
population.  "  There  was  not,  that  day,"  says  Froissart, 
for  once  moved  to  compassion,  in  spite  of  his  idolatrous 
love  of  chivalry,  "  a  man  in  Limoges,  with  a  heart  so 
hardened,  or  so  little  sense  of  religion,  as  not  to  bewail 
the  unfortunate  scene  before  his  eyes.  Upwards  of  three 
thousand  men,  women,  and  children  were  slaughtered. 
God  have  mercy  on  their  souls  !  for  they  were  veritable 
martyrs."  While  this  atrocious  wholesale  murder  was 
proceeding,  eighty  French  knights  and  men-at-arms, 
being  all  who  remained  of  the  garrison,  drew  themselves 
up  against  a  wall ;  determined  to  sell  their  lives  dearly, 
in  spite  of  overwhelming  numbers.  The  Prince  was  so 
delighted  with  their  prowess,  that  he  sent  to  offer  them 
life,  and  liberty  of  ransom.  The  survivors  gladly 
accepted  the  boon.  The  city  was  being  rifled  and 
burned  all  this  time,  and  its  unarmed  inhabitants  were 
undergoing  the  horrors  of  torture,  violation,  and 
butchery.  In  like  manner,  Philip  VI.  of  France,  at 
the  Battle  of  Cregy,  displeased  with  his  mercenary 
Genoese  cross-bowmen,  ordered  his  mailed  knights  to 
fall  upon  them  ;  which  they  did,  riding  them  down,  and 
butchering  them  without  compunction.  These  are  only 
a  few  out  of  numerous  proofs  and  illustrations  that  the 
boasted  institution  of  chivalry  had  little  influence  in 
civilizing  the  human  race,  and  in  developing  truly  heroic 
virtues.  It  was  a  false  and  meretricious  code  of  honour. 
On  its  sentimental  side,  with  the  fopperies  and  fripperies 
of  tournaments,  with  its  vision  of  fair  women,  with  its 
minstrels  and  troubadours,  and  with  its  theory  of 
knightly  devotion  and  courtesy,  it  presents  a  glamour 
of  poetry,  daring,  and  adventure.  In  practice,  it  was  an 
exaggeration  of  one  or  two  virtues  of  a  secondary  order, 
to  the  neglect  of  the  elementary  laws  of  right  and  wrong  ; 
of  justice  and  mercy  ;  of  truth  and  honesty. 

It  is  time  that  this  figment  of  mediaeval  chivalry  were 
exploded,  with  its  outward  glitter  and  inward  rottenness, 
and  with  its  verbal  veneer  that  covered  deeds  of  infamy. 
These  cannot  be  hidden  by  all  the  glamour  that  Time 
has  lent  to  such  Knightly  Orders  as  that  of  the  Garter, 
founded  by  Edward  III.,  about   1346  ;    or  of  the  Bath, 


348  ENGLAND  AND  FRANCE.       [chap.  xxi. 

said  to  be  instituted  by  Richard  II.  in  1399,  and  revived 
by  VValpole.  A  popular  ballad  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
'The  Tournament  of  Tottenham/  printed  by  Warton 
and  by  Percy,  admirably  exposes  the  follies  and  pretences 
of  chivalry.  Rabelais  (1495-1553)  does  the  same  in  his 
'  (}argantua.'  Cervantes  (1547-1616)  ridiculed  its  sham 
sentiment  in  '  Don  Quixote,'  whose  doughty  attacks 
upon  windmills  and  imaginary  castles  served  to  bring 
knight-errantry  into  deserved  contempt.  It  was  in- 
herently bid,  hollow,  and  insincere;  but  it  has  been 
made  to  assume  a  factitious  importance  and  a  painted 
beauty  by  the  aid  of  romance  and  by  the  mellowing  haze 
of  distance.  Viewed  closely,  and  judged  impartially,  it  is 
a  sham  and  a  delusion  ;  an  embodiment  of  selfishness, 
cruelty,  and  pride.  What  Prince  Edward  did  at 
Limoges  is  a  type  of  this  vaunted  chivalry,  which  held 
in  contempt  all  who  were  not  fighting-men.  He  spared 
the  knights,  not  from  motives  of  humanity,  but  only 
because  of  their  knighthood.  He  had  no  compunction 
in  ordering  a  wholesale  butchery  of  three  thousand  help- 
less men,  women,  and  children,  who  could  not  boast  of 
gentle  blood. 

While  engaged  in  Guienne  in  these  ravages,  he  en- 
countered a  French  army.  The  renowned  Battle  of 
Poitiers  was  fought,  September  19,  1356.  The  English, 
numerically  inferior,  were  again  victorious  ;  mainly  owing 
to  the  renowned  archers.  King  John  II.  of  France  and 
his  younger  son,  with  many  nobles,  were  taken  prisoners. 
Their  entry  into  London  resembled  an  ancient  Roman 
triumph.  The  Savoy  Palace  in  the  Strand  was  assigned 
as  a  residence  to  the  captive  monarch.  The  demand  was 
renewed  for  the  recognition  of  Edward  the  Third's 
absolute  sovereignty  over  his  French  possessions.  King 
]ohn  was  prepared  to  concede  it,  but  the  Dauphin  who 
ruled  in  his  enforced  absence,  sustained  by  the  general 
sentiment  of  the  people,  absolutely  refused.  Hostilities 
were  resumed  by  Edward,  who  crossed  with  a  numerous 
army  in  October,  1359,  to  Calais;  largely  swollen  by 
fresh  bands  of  hirelings  from  all  parts  of  Europe,  who 
flocked  thither  like  vultures  with  a  keen  scent  for 
plunder.  Picardy,  Artois,  Champagne,  and  Burgundy 
were  overrun  and  devastated,  and   their  inhabitants   put 


A..D.  I327-I373-]  TREATY  OF  BRETIGNY.  349 

to  the  sword.  The  peasants,  goaded  into  fury  by  the 
cruelty  and  rapacity  shown  on  both  sides,  rose  in  mad 
rebellion,  and  took  a  fearful  vengeance.  The  Jacquerie, 
however,  as  this  peasant  rising  was  contemptuously 
called,  was  really  provoked  by  long-continued  oppression 
on  the  part  of  the  nobles,  who  were  made  for  a  few 
weeks  to  experience  some  of  the  horrors  and  cruelties 
which  they  had  ruthlessly  perpetrated  for  generations. 
The  insurrection  began  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Paris, 
but  it  extended  to  the  banks  of  the  Marne  and  the  Oise. 
It  was  brutally  suppressed ;  the  Black  Prince  and  his 
opponent,  the  Captal  de  Buch,  suspending  hostilities,  and 
uniting  their  forces  to  chastise  and  crush  the  Jacquerie, 
whom  their  boasted  chivalry  taught  them  to  despise. 
The  spirit  that  prompted  the  outbreak,  sternly  kept 
under  for  centuries,  and  aggravated  by  scandalous  mis- 
government,  at  length  burst  forth  in  the  fire,  and  blood, 
and  tornado  of  the  French  Revolution  at  the  close  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  In  like  tnanner,  in  1525 — for  History 
constantly  repeats  itself — the  Due  de  Guise,  on  behalf  of 
the  French  King,  Francis  I.,  who  was  then  at  war  with 
the  Emperor  Charles  V,,  and  was  his  prisoner,  took  an 
active  part  in  suppressing  the  Peasants'  War  in 
Germany. 

An  attempt  made  upon  Paris  by  Edward  III.  failed, 
chiefly  because  the  whole  region  was  a  waste,  and  could 
not  support  the  invaders.  He  withdrew  into  Maine ; 
threatening  to  return  in  the  following  summer ;  but  a 
treaty  was  made  at  a  village  near  Chartres,  on  May  8, 
1360.  This  is  known  as  the  Treaty  of  Bretigny.  By  it, 
the  King  of  England,  for  himself  and  his  heirs,  received 
in  full  sovereignty  Guienne,  Gascony,  Poitou,  Perigord, 
Limousin,  forming  the  province  of  Aquitaine,  acquired 
by  the  marriageof  Eleanor  with  Henry  II.;  with  Angouleme, 
Ponthieu,  Montreuil,  Calais,  and  their  dependencies,  or 
more  than  half  the  realm  of  France.  He  was  also  to 
receive,  as  ransom  for  King  John,  three  millions  of 
crowns — equal  in  modern  money  to  about  seven  millions 
and  a  half  sterling  —  within  six  years.  Ninety-three 
hostages  of  high  rank,  including  three  of  John's  sons 
and  one  of  his  brothers,  were  to  be  surrendered  until 
the    conditions    were    fulfilled.      On   his    part,    Edward 


350  ENGLAND  AND  FRANCE.      [chap.  xxr. 

abandoned  all  claim  to  the  crown  of  France,  to  his 
ancestral  domains  in  Normandy,  Touraine,  Maine,  and 
Anjou,  and  to  all  his  conquests,  excepting  those  named 
above.  He  further  agreed  not  to  assist  the  Flemings 
against  the  French  ;  on  condition  that  the  latter  did  not 
aid  the  Scots.  The  two  monarchs  swore  to  observe  the 
provisions  of  this  treaty  ;  as  did  twenty  nobles  on  each 
side.  Oaths  were  cheap  commodities  ;  freely  taken,  and 
as  freely  broken  when  convenient. 

King  John  was  conducted  to  Calais,  and  there  released. 
Grave  difficulties  arose  about  carrying  out  the  compact, 
and  he  returned  to  England  in  1363,  and  died  there  a 
few  months  later.  In  the  meanwhile,  Prince  Edward 
had  been  entrusted  with  the  rule  of  Aquitaine,  between 
the  Loire  and  the  Pyrenees.  He  entered  into  an  alliance 
with  Pedro  of  Castile — styled  the  Cruel,  by  reason  of  his 
atrocities — undertaking,  for  a  consideration,  to  restore 
him  to  the  throne  from  which  an  outraged  people  had 
driven  him.  When  this  was  effected,  Pedro  proved 
recreant.  The  stipulated  payment  was  not  made,  and 
Edward  found  himself  left  with  a  shattered  army  and 
an  exhausted  exchequer.  He  imposed  a  hearth-tax  upon 
the  miserable  population  of  the  Landes,  and  oppressed 
them  in  other  ways,  which  eventually  led  to  the  loss  of 
Aquitaine.  He  also  connived  at  his  hired  banditti  help- 
ing themselves,  as  usual,  by  plundering  the  neighbouring 
provinces  of  France.  Charles  V.  used  it  as  a  pretext  for 
declaring  war  again  in  1369.  It  waged  for  two  years 
with  indecisive  results.  Prince  Edward's  health  was 
broken,  and  increasing  illness  compelled  him  to  return 
home  early  in  13  71.  He  lingered  for  five  years,  often 
unable  to  take  part  in  public  affairs ;  and  then  died,  not 
before  a  series  of  reverses  and  disasters  had  occurred  in 
France,  His  father  went  in  1372  with  a  superb  fleet  to 
relieve  Rochelle.  The  wind  baffled  his  efforts,  and  an 
immense  treasure  was  expended  in  vain.  In  the  next 
year,  his  fourth  son — commonly  styled  John  of  Gaunt, 
from  Ghent,  his  birthplace,  but  known  as  the  Duke  of 
Lancaster — led  an  army,  unresisted,  to  the  gates  of  Paris  ; 
only  to  perish  by  famine  and  disease  on  its  return  through 
Auvergne  to  Bordeaux.  Gascony  and  its  dependencies 
revolted     from    English     rule.      Poitou,     Guienne,    and 


A.D.  1327-1373.]  FRENCH  POSSESSIONS  LOST.        351 

Ponthieu    were     invaded     by    the     French,     who     were 
welcomed  as  deliverers   by  the  inhabitants. 

Thus  within  five  years,  Charles  V.  had  recovered  all 
the  districts  surrendered  by  his  father.  Twenty-eight 
years  after  the  triumph  of  Cre^y,  the  only  possessions 
retained  by  the  English  in  France  were  Calais,  Bordeaux, 
Bayonne,  and  a  few  places  on  the  Dordonne.  The  victors 
suffered  as  much  as  the  vanquished.  Of  glory  there  was 
abundance  ;  but  nought  besides.  Edward  III.  gained 
nothing  but  barren  laurels  from  nearly  fifty  years  spent 
in  war,  and  crowned  for  the  most  part  with  victory  ;  but 
resulting  in  no  practical  purpose.  The  liberty,  the 
happiness,  and  the  lives  of  untold  multitudes  were  wasted 
in  the  pursuit  of  a  phantom.  Never,  perhaps,  was  there 
an  ambitious  project  which  seemed  so  certain  of  achieve- 
ment. Never  was  there  a  more  rapid  and  astonishing 
series  of  military  successes.  Never  were  reverse  and 
retribution  so  sudden  and  complete.  It  was  not,  how- 
ever, a  mere  question  of  numerical  superiority  and 
strategic  skill  on  the  one  side,  and  of  incapacity  on  the 
other.  The  newly-annexed  districts  had  sullenly  yielded 
to  English  rule,  and  the  older  provinces,  which  had 
rarely  been  separated  from  England  since  Norman  times, 
turned  by  a  natural  yearning  towards  France.  So 
enormous  had  been  the  expense  and  suffering  of  the 
prolonged  strife,  and  so  hopeless  appeared  its  continuance, 
that  a  truce  was  agreed  to  in  February,  1375,  and  was 
renewed  until  Edward's  death,  two  years  later. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

THE  BLACK  DEATH  AND  THE  STATUTES  OF  LABOURERS. 
A.D.   1 348-1 360. 

The  brilliant  but  fruitless  triumphs  of  Cregy  and  Poitiers, 
with  all  the  evanescent  glories  of  the  campaigns  in 
France,  were  but  Pyrrhic  victories.  The  loss  of  life  and 
the  waste  of  money  were  exceeded  in  their  effects  by  a 
dire    calamity    that    visited    England,    in    common    with 


35a  STATUTES  OF  LABOURERS,  [chap.  xxii. 

nearly  all  the  countries  of  FAirope.  The  only  historical 
parallel  is  the  Great  Plague  in  the  reign  of  Justinian,  in 
tlie  sixth  century.  There  had  been  repeated  outbreaks 
of  pestilence  in  England  since  the  one  in  664,  described 
by  Baeda,  which  desolated  the  country  for  twenty  years. 
It  is  terrible  to  read,  in  all  the  Chronicles,  of  plague, 
blight,  famine,  murrain,  and  other  calamities  that 
occurred  with  periodicity  in  every  generation,  or,  some- 
times, every  few  years.  The  visitation  in  the  fourteenth 
century  was  by  far  the  most  terrible.  Modern  medical 
authorities  agree  that  it  was  the  bubo-plague  ;  known  to 
have  existed  in  Egypt  in  the  time  of  the  Ptolemies. 
The  fullest  accounts  are  given  by  Dr.  Gasquet  and  Dr, 
Augustus  Jessopp,  and  in  Creighton's  '  Epidemics  in 
Britain.'  It  is  recorded  in  terms  of  dread  in  the 
Chronicles  of  the  time  as  the  Great  Pestilence,  or  the 
Great  Mortality.  A  later  name  given  to  it  is  the  Black 
Death ;  from  the  dark  blotches  on  the  skin  of  the 
victims.  The  writers  tell,  in  the  superstitious  manner 
of  that  age,  how  it  was  heralded  by  dismal  portents. 
Whole  districts  were  depopulated.  How  many  perished 
in  England,  France,  Italy,  and  Germany,  cannot  now  be 
determined  ;  but  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  trade, 
industry,  agriculture,  war,  and  politics  were  paralysed  for 
the  time,  and  social  conditions  underwent  a  revolution. 
The  ecclesiastical  system  was  disorganized ;  and  every- 
thing had  to  be  built  up  anew.  Even  if,  as  is  probable, 
the  twenty-five  millions  so  precisely  mentioned  by 
Hecker,  in  his  '  Epidemics  of  the  Middle  Ages,'  be  an 
exaggeration  of  the  fatal  effects  of  the  outbreak,  as  is 
always  the  case  in  a  panic,  the  number  must  have  been 
very  large. 

The  symptoms  of  the  pestilence  were  vomiting,  spitting 
of  blood,  violent  pains  in  the  head  and  stomach,  gan- 
grenous inflammation  of  the  throat  and  lungs,  carbuncles, 
glandular  swellings,  and  small  black  pustules  with  a 
pestilential  odour.  The  disease  usually  ran  its  fatal 
course  in  two  or  three  days,  and  often  in  a  few  hours. 
It  was  certain  death  to  touch  the  stricken,  or  even  to 
inhale  their  breath.  This  awful  epidemic,  coming  from 
Asia  in  the  track  of  the  caravans  that  brought  the 
produce  of  the  East,  broke  out  in  Cyprus  in  1347,  and 


A.D.  1348-1360.]       THE  MORTALITY.  353 

coursed  through  Europe.  No  country  escaped.  Its 
ravages  in  Florence  are  vividly  described  in  Boccaccio's 
'  Decameron,'  in  a  manner  rivalling  the  account  by 
Thucydides  of  the  plague  at  Athens.  The  Black  Death 
first  appeared  in  England  in  the  Autumn  of  1348,  and 
raged  for  nearly  two  years.  It  seems  to  have  been 
introduced  by  some  Calais  vessels  into  Melcombe  Regis, 
or  Weymouth,  then  an  important  port  ;  whence  it 
spread  Northwards  throughout  the  kingdom,  and  ex- 
tended to  Wales,  Scotland,  and  Ireland.  A  further 
outbreak  occurred  from  August,  1361,  to  May,  1362,  and 
again  in  1369,  in  1375,  in  1382,  and  in  1390.  It  may  be 
continuously  traced  down  to  the  Great  Plague  of 
London  in  1664-5,  and  it  was  the  principal  zymotic  disease 
of  the  country  for  three  centuries.  Sixty  thousand 
are  said  to  have  perished  in  Norwich,  which  became 
sixth  in  order  of  population,  instead  of  the  second  as 
heretofore.  In  Bristol,  the  dead  exceeded  the  living. 
London  was  a  vast  charnel-house.  A  new  graveyard  of 
thirteen  acres  had  to  be  provided  outside  the  walls,  near 
the  Charterhouse.  The  ravages  were  not  confined  to 
crowded  cities,  or  to  the  poorer  classes.  Scattered  villages 
and  sequestered  hamlets  were  attacked ;  as  were  the  high- 
born and  the  wealthy.  A  daughter  of  Edward  the  Third, 
probably  three  Archbishops  of  Canterbury — John  Strat- 
ford, John  de  Ufford,  and  Thomas  Bradwardine — with 
many  nobles,  abbots,  priors,  and  yeomen,  as  well  as 
labourers  and  mechanics,  succumbed  during  one  year. 

The  dead  had  to  be  hastily  consigned  to  deep  pits  and 
long  trenches.  Survivors  fled,  panic-stricken.  The  most 
sacred  ties  of  kinship  were  broken.  Even  the  promptings 
of  selfishness  and  the  greed  of  gain  were  unheeded. 
Parents  forsook  their  children  ;  merchants  abandoned 
their  property ;  physicians  refused  to  visit ;  and  priests 
forbore  to  administer  the  last  offices  to  the  dying,  or  to 
perform  funeral  ceremonies.  Harvests  rotted  on  the 
ground ;  the  fields  were  left  unploughed ;  and  sheep  and 
cattle  untended.  No  fewer  than  eight  hundred  and 
sixty-three  beneficed  clergymen  in  the  diocese  of  Nor- 
wich, or  two-thirds  of  those  in  Norfolk  and  Suffolk, 
perished  in  one  year,  according  to  the  Register  of 
Institutions ;  some  of  the  parishes  being   filled  up  three 


354  STATUTES  OF  LABOURERS,  [chap.  xxii. 

or  four  times.  Nineteen  religious  houses  in  that  diocese 
lost  their  abbots  or  priors.  Twenty-four  out  of  the  sixty 
parish  churches  in  Norwich  were  abandoned,  and  fell  into 
ruins.  A  similar  state  of  things  prevailed  elsewhere, 
though  the  particulars  are  not  so  minutely  and  carefully 
given.  It  is  estimated  that,  in  all,  five  thousand  of  the 
clergy  died,  besides  a  much  larger  number  who  did  not 
hold  livings ;  and  for  years  much  difficulty  was  experi- 
enced in  supplying  the  vacancies.  The  Rolls  of  Manorial 
Courts  show  how  frequent  were  the  admissions  to  property, 
and  how  brief  was  the  tenure ;  while  ominous  blanks  in 
the  records  are  mute  signs  that  Courts  could  not  be  held. 
Whole  families  were  swept  away,  leaving  not  one 
representative.  This  partly  explains  the  fact,  now 
generally  admitted,  that  the  population  of  England  and 
Wales  in  1377,  did  not  exceed  two  and  a  half  millions, 
and  probably  was  not  more  than  two  millions  ;  or  but 
about  double  that  of  England  alone  at  the  Domesday  Book 
enrolment.  Nor  does  it  seem  to  have  increased  until  the 
time  of  Queen  Elizabeth  ;  mainly  owing  to  the  mortality 
caused  by  frequent  epidemics,  and  to  the  Wars  of  the 
Roses. 

The  only  section  of  the  clergy  who  tried  to  cope  with 
the  surrounding  wretchedness  were  the  Franciscans. 
True  to  their  early  vows  and  practices,  they  devoted 
themselves  to  the  revolting  but  necessary  task.  Thou- 
sands of  them  perished  in  different  parts  of  Europe, 
owing  to  their  merciful  ministrations.  The  medical  know- 
ledge of  the  time — if,  indeed,  the  phrase  be  not  a  mis- 
nomer— was  at  a  loss  what  to  do  or  to  recommend. 
iEsculapian  oracles  are  as  vague  as  most  oracles  ;  ancient 
or  modern.  Conjectures  were  freely  made  as  to  the 
causes  of  the  epidemic.  These  were  supposed  to  be 
partly  atmospheric  and  partly  astrological.  Such  obvious 
reasons  were  overlooked  as  the  neglect  of  drainage,  the 
insanitary  condition  of  houses,  the  uncleanly  habits  of 
the  people,  and  their  coarse  and  gross  diet.  Squalor  and 
wretchedness,  poverty  and  corruption,  prevailed  among 
the  poor.  Fever  and  plague  ran  an  unobstructed  course 
in  the  dense  quarters  of  towns,  where  garbage  contami- 
nated the  atmosphere  and  the  water  supply.  The 
narrowness  and  intricacy  of  the  streets  and  courts,  while 


A.D.  1348-1360.]  INSANITARY  CONDITIONS.  355 

serving  as  a  protection  against  the  raids  of  mounted 
knights  and  their  men-at-arms,  also  prevented  the  free 
circulation  of  light  and  air,  and  were  favourable  to 
zymotic  diseases.  Hygeia  then  had  but  few  votaries 
at  her  shrine.  Ordinary  precautions  seem  to  have  been 
generally  neglected,  judging  by  the  frequency  with 
which  sanitary  regulations  are  met  with;  for  these  prove 
that  the  negligence  was  so  chronic  and  persistent  as  to 
demand  incessant  legislative  and  administrative  checks. 
Scavenging  of  some  rudimentary  kind  must  have  pre- 
vailed, but  the  difficulty  of  disposing  of  refuse  is  of  old 
standing.  The  common  plan  was  to  deposit  it  outside 
the  walls,  or  to  throw  it  into  the  town  ditch  or  the  river. 

A  glimpse  of  the  state  of  the  streets  of  London  is 
furnished  in  a  royal  order  of  136 1  to  the  Mayor  and 
Sheriffs  : — "  Because,  by  the  killing  of  great  beasts,  from 
whose  putrid  blood  running  down  the  streets,  and  the 
bowels  cast  into  the  Thames,  the  air  in  the  city  is  very 
much  corrupted  and  infected,  whence  abominable  and 
most  filthy  stench  proceeds,  sickness  and  many  other 
evils  have  happened,  and  great  dangers  are  feared  to 
fall  out  for  the  time  to  come,  we  ordain,  by  consent  of 
the  present  Parliament,  that  all  bulls,  oxen,  hogs,  and 
other  gross  creatures  be  killed  at  either  Stratford  or 
Knightsbridge."  Even  in  the  rural  districts,  in  imme- 
diate proximity  to  lordly  castles  and  manor-houses, 
abominations  were  suffered  that  encouraged  and  invited 
pestilence.  \\  is  not  surprising  that  sixteen  conspicuous 
outbreaks  of  the  plague  occurred  in  Europe  during  the 
fourteenth  century,  and  seventeen  in  the  following  one ; 
besides  local  and  transient  attacks.  In  most  of  these 
England  participated.  When  they  appeared,  they  had 
to  run  their  course  through  the  dense  slough  of  misery, 
such  as  the  worst  slums  of  modern  cities  do  not  present. 
Each  attack  carried  off  many  thousands  of  victims,  and 
then  the  survivors  pursued  their  usual  habits  until  another 
hecatomb  was  demanded. 

Great  fatality  also  resulted  at  this  period  from  the 
prevalence  of  typhoid  fever,  of  flux,  or  dysentery,  and  of 
scrofulous  diseases,  including  some  repulsive  forms  of 
what  was  called  leprosy ;  loathsome  and  infectious  in  the 
highest    degree.     One    cause,    undoubtedly,   as    has    been 


3c6  STATUTES  OF  LABOURERS,  [chap.  xxii. 

indicated  more  than  once,  was  the  excessive  use  of  salted 
meat  and  fish,  and  the  absence  of  a  leguminous  diet. 
Another  cause  was  the  neglect  of  bodily  cleanliness,  when 
rough  woollen  garments  were  worn  next  the  skin  without 
fre(iuent  personal  ablutions  or  visits  to  the  laundry. 
Cleanliness,  health,  and  order  were  not  then  understood 
to  constitute  a  triad  of  Graces.  A  rudimentary  know- 
ledge of  the  uses  of  simples  and  of  the  treatment  of 
wounds  and  diseases  was  supposed  to  appertain  to  every- 
body. Sick  and  injured  persons  were  usually  placed  in 
the  care  of  the  lady  of  the  house  and  her  damsels. 
Medicinal  herbs  were  grown  in  every  garden,  and  dried, 
or  made  into  decoctions  ready  for  use.  To  this  knowledge 
was  often  added,  more  particularly  in  Italy,  the  occult 
one  of  poisons,  which  were  used  to  a  terrible  extent  in 
the  Middle  Ages ;  women  being  the  usual  operators. 
Of  the  construction  and  functions  of  the  body  there  was 
pro''ound  ignorance.  Voltaire's  famous  saying  applies 
with  strict  accuracy  to  this  period,  and  to  later  centuries  ; 
that  powerful  drugs,  of  which  little  was  known,  were 
administered  to  the  human  body,  of  which  nothing  was 
known.  Medicines  were  usually  taken  at  particular  ages 
of  the  moon,  or  under  certain  planets.  Faith  continued 
to  be  placed  in  spells,  charms,  and  talismans ;  like  the 
ancient  Abracadabra.  Miracles  were  often  said  to  be 
wrought  on  sick  persons  by  means  of  relics  kept  in 
churches ;  usually  in  cases  of  gold  set  with  jewels. 

The  state  of  medicine  may  be  gathered  from  the  work 
of  John  of  Gaddesden,  physician  to  Edward  II.  He 
had  studied  at  Oxford,  and  was  deemed  a  great  authority. 
Among  other  things,  he  administered  seven  heads  of  fat 
bats  as  a  remedy  for  diseases  of  the  spleen.  He  had  long 
been  troubled  how  to  cure  stone  in  the  bladder ;  but 
"  at  last  I  thought  of  collecting  a  good  quantity  of  those 
beetles  which  in  summer  are  found  in  the  dung  of  oxen  ; 
also  of  the  crickets  which  sing  in  the  fields.  I  cut  off  the 
heads  and  wings  of  the  crickets,  and  put  them  with  the 
beetles  and  common  oil  into  a  pot.  I  covered  it,  and  left 
it  for  a  day  and  a  night  in  a  bread  oven.  I  drew  out  the 
pot,  and  heated  it  at  a  moderate  fire.  I  pounded  the 
whole,  and  rubbed  the  sick  parts.  In  three  days,  the 
pain   had   disappeared,    for   the   stone   had    broken    into 


A.D.  1 348- 1 360.]  ROGER  BACON.  357 

pieces."  Another  description  of  medical  treatment  is 
given  by  John  of  SaHsbury,  Bishop  of  Chartres,  who  died 
in  1 1 80.  Such  statements  are  true  of  a  much  later  period 
than  the  Black  Death. 

The  only  name  worthy  to  be  remembered  as  a  scientific 
teacher  in  an  age  of  such  gross  darkness  is  that  of  the 
great  Franciscan,  Roger  Bacon,  who  is  supposed  to  have 
died  about  1292.  His  name  alone  would  have  sufficed  to 
estabUsh  the  reputation  of  his  Order,  but  his  contempo- 
raries failed  to  appreciate  his  transcendent  merits.  Each 
century  has  had  its  literary  rushlights  which  passed  for 
celestial  luminaries,  while  those  who  were  truly  such 
have  been  contemned  and  extinguished.  This  marvel 
and  prodigy  of  Mediseval  letters,  the  Admirable  Crichton 
of  his  age,  was  born  at  Ilchester,  in  Somerset,  in  12 14. 
After  studying  in  the  renowned  University  of  Paris,  he 
returned  to  Oxford,  where  he  spent  the  chief  part  of  his 
long  and  studious  life.  He  applied  himself  to  the  pseudo- 
science  of  that  age ;  but  rose  far  above  it  by  the  force  of 
his  intellect,  and  did  much  to  increase  the  then  scanty 
knowledge  of  the  laws  and  operations  of  Nature.  He 
paid  the  penalty  of  all  who  live  in  advance  of  their  time, 
and  who  dare  to  confront  authority  with  experience.  He 
was  once  kept  for  ten  years  a  close  prisoner;  but  Pope 
Clement  IV.,  who  had  been  Legate  to  England,  appre- 
ciated and  befriended  him.  A  touching  letter  addressed 
to  the  Pontiff  gives  some  autobiographical  account  of 
Friar  Bacon.  Such  of  his  writings  as  remain  show  that 
he  invented  the  magnifying  glass ;  made  important 
discoveries  in  optics  and  in  light ;  knew  something  about 
a  composition  similar  to  gunpowder,  although  it  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  explosive ;  and  understood  Hebrew, 
Greek,  and  Latin,  at  a  time  when  the  two  former 
languages  were  generally  neglected.  The  Hebrew 
manuscripts  and  the  instructions  which  he  found  among 
Jewish  rabbis  in  the  famous  colony  in  Oxford,  where 
they  were  numerous  and  wealthy,  prior  to  their  expulsion 
in  1290,  were  the  means  by  which  he  penetrated  to  the 
older  world  of  material  and  medical  research,  as  brought 
by  them  from  the  Orient.  They  and  the  Saracens  did 
much  to  transmit  the  torch  of  science  and  of  learning 
through  the  darkness  of  the  Middle  Ages. 


358  STATUTES  OF  LABOURERS,  [chap.  xxil. 

]]ncnn  was  also  skilled  in  mathematics ;  studied  me- 
chanics, geography,  astronomy,  chemistry,  and  chrono- 
logy ;  besides  logic,  metaphysics,  and  theology.  He 
pointed  out  the  errors  then  prevailing  in  the  Calendar, 
and  in  his  corrected  data  came  very  near  the  truth.  He 
prepared  a  rectified  Calendar;  a  copy  of  which  is  pjre- 
served  in  the  Bodleian  at  Oxford.  His  great  and  varied 
knowledge,  so  far  beyond  the  Quadrivium  and  Trivium 
of  the  scholastic  philosophy,  earned  for  him  the  title  of 
the  Wonderful  Doctor.  That  he  believed  in  astrology, 
and  in  what  was  called  "speculative  alchemy" — probably 
some  form  of  experimental  physics— is  not  surprising. 
The  marvel  is  that  he  should  so  far  have  surpassed  in 
acquirements  the  men  of  his  day ;  and,  with  such  limited 
appliances,  and  under  such  disadvantageous  circumstances, 
anticipated  some  of  the  most  important  scientific  discove- 
ries of  later  ages.  Some  remarkable  coincidences  and 
parallelisms  occur  in  the  works  of  his  great  namesake, 
Lord  Bacon.  Both  of  these  writers  had  a  profound 
admiration  for  Seneca ;  the  one,  for  his  scientific  value ; 
the  other,  for  an  air  of  sententious  morality.  The  chief 
distinction  to  be  drawn,  apart  from  the  divergent  circum- 
stances under  which  their  researches  were  pursued,  is 
that  Friar  Bacon,  though  in  practice  a  keen  and  sagacious 
experimentalist,  in  his  exposition  of  science  adopted  the 
deductive  method,  whereas  Lord  Bacon  followed  the 
inductive  method.  Dr.  Whewell  has  given  a  careful 
estimate  in  his  '  History  of  the  Inductive  Sciences,'  and 
the  Rev.  J.  S.  Brewer  has  an  admirable  Introduction  to 
Roger  Bacon's  '  Opera  Inedita,'  in  the  Rolls  Series. 

The  results  of  the  Black  Death  were  terrible  and 
abiding  for  England,  in  addition  to  the  great  loss  of  life. 
Whole  districts  were  thrown  out  of  cultivation  for  a  time, 
through  a  deficiency  of  labourers.  Industry  was  disorgan- 
ized. Towns  and  villages  fell  into  decay.  Houses,  mills, 
and  cottages  were  tenantless.  A  murrain  broke  out 
among  the  cattle  and  sheep,  which  died  by  thousands. 
The  prices  of  food  and  of  all  commodities  were  greatly 
enhanced.  Rents  of  farming  land  had  to  be  lowered ;  to 
the  extent  of  one-half  in  many  places.  The  wool  trade 
was  paralysed,  and  thereby  one  of  the  principal  sources 


A.D.  134S-1360.]  CHAAGING  SOCIAL  RELATIONS.   359 

of  the  royal  revenue,  by  the  duties  imposed,  was  cut  off. 
William  Dene  of  Rochester  wrote,  not  long  after  the 
outbreak, — "So  great  was  the  want  of  labourers  and 
workmen  of  every  art  and  craft,  that  a  third  part  and 
more  of  the  land  throughout  the  entire  kingdom  re- 
mained uncultivated.  Labourers  and  skilled  workmen 
became  so  rebellious  that  neither  the  King,  nor  the  law, 
nor  the  justices  the  guardians  of  the  law,  were  able  to 
punish  them."  The  political  events  of  the  time  shrink 
into  insignificance  before  the  tremendous  calamity  that 
changed  the  whole  face  of  rural  England,  transformed 
the  agricultural  system,  and  permanently  affected  the 
course  of  social  and  economic  life. 

One  foul  mark  left  by  the  Plague  appears  in  successive 
Statutes  of  Labourers.  They  were  retrograde  measures ; 
not  excusable  because  adopted  in  a  time  of  panic.  Even 
if  the  Black  Death  had  not  swept  over  the  land,  some 
other  occasion  would  have  arisen  for  the  working  out  of 
economic  laws.  The  germs  of  change  had  long  since 
struck  in  the  soil.  Freedom  of  labour  began  to  be 
asserted.  Wages  showed  an  inevitable  tendency  to  rise, 
owing  to  the  dearth  of  labourers.  Now,  they  advanced 
by  leaps  and  bounds.  There  was  a  demand  and  a  need 
for  social  amelioration.  The  struggling  denizens  of 
walled  towns,  and  the  miserable  labourers  in  rural 
districts,  began  to  hope  for  some  improvement.  Their 
livelihood  was  precarious.  They  literally  subsisted  from 
hand  to  mouth.  At  all  times  indifferently  housed,  clad, 
and  fed,  they  perished  from  absolute  want  in  hard  times. 
It  was  natural  for  them  to  seize  upon  an  opportunity  to 
effect  a  change  in  their  wretched  condition.  "The  rebel- 
lions of  the  belly  are  the  worst,"  says  Lord  Bacon. 
Already,  there  were  signs  of  improvement  in  England  ; 
whereas,  on  the  Continent,  changes  in  tenure  and  in 
personal  service  were  not  initiated  for  several  centuries, 
and  were  not  completed  until  after  the  French  Revolu- 
tion. The  old  feudal  distinction  between  lords  and 
vassals,  coarse  and  brutal  as  it  had  become,  was  dying 
away;  not  without  a  struggle.  A  class  of  men  had 
arisen,  who,  although  they  did  not  immediately  acquire 
the  power  of  bartering  their  labour  to  the  best  bidder, 
had  escaped  from  the  toil  of  personal  bondage. 


36o  STATUTES  OF  LABOURERS,  [chap.  xxii. 

The  servile  tenants  of  manors,  for  example,  were  per- 
mitted to  occupy  small  portions  of  land  for  their  own 
use,  but  were  required,  at  stated  seasons,  to  cultivate  the 
demesnes  of  their  lords.  They  are  scarcely  noticed  in 
the  earlier  records ;  but,  after  the  time  of  Edward  I., 
whenever  it  became  important  for  the  lord  to  inquire 
into  the  state  of  his  manors,  the  number  and  condition 
of  his  servile  tenants,  and  the  extent  and  nature  of 
their  services,  were  investigated  as  minutely  as  the  value 
of  his  arable  and  pasture  land,  his  live  stock,  his  fish- 
ponds, his  mills,  and  his  mansion  houses.  From  these 
later  records  it  is  evident  that  by  the  time  of  Edward 
III.  the  condition  of  many  of  the  villeins  was  somewhat 
improved.  Instead  of  being  obliged  to  perform  every 
mean  and  servile  office  imposed  by  the  arbitrary  will  of 
their  lords,  tenure  was  held  on  condition  of  rendering  cer- 
tain defined  labour,  such  as  sowing,  reaping,  harrowing, 
or  drawing  timber  and  stone  for  a  given  number  of  days. 
Apart  from  this  forced  labour,  they  were  at  liberty  to 
use  their  time  and  industry  in  their  own  way.  A  servile 
tenant,  if  employed  before  Midsummer,  received  wages. 
Instead  of  working  himself  for  the  lord,  he  could  provide 
a  labourer  ;  which  implies  the  means  of  hiring  one.  The 
practice  also  became  general,  owing  to  the  exigencies  of 
war  and  tournaments,  and  to  the  increasing  costliness  of 
living,  of  accepting  a  money  payment,  usually,  of  a  penny 
a  day  in  Summer  and  a  halfpenny  a  day  in  Winter,  in 
lieu  of  personal  or  substituted  labour.  The  few  pence 
paid  per  acre  were  identical  with  what  is  now  called 
ground-rent  in  the  case  of  land  let  on  lease.  The  tenant 
could  not  be  summarily  evicted,  or  have  his  property 
confiscated.  If  he  wished  to  dispose  of  his  holding,  the 
lord  of  the  manor  exacted  a  money  payment  or  fine,  as 
is  now  done  with  copyholds.  If  the  tenant  died,  his  heir 
had  to  pay  for  admission  to  the  inheritance.  If  intestate, 
the  property  accrued  to  the  lord,  who  could  fix  what 
rent  he  pleased  to  an  incoming  tenant. 

All  this  was  attempted  to  be  changed  for  the  worse  by 
the  new  legislation  that  followed  upon  the  Black  Death. 
Those  who  had  raised  themselves  into  the  position  of 
free  tenants,  were  to  be  thrust  down  to  a  lower  position. 
The  commutation  of  personal  labour  into  a  money  pay- 


A.D.  1348-1360.]  FEUDALISM  D  YING  HARD.  361 

ment  was  to  be  cancelled.  The  old  idea,  that  serfs  had 
no  legal  rights,  was  revived.  Any  services  rendered  by 
them  were  to  be  recompensed  or  not,  at  the  good  pleasure 
of  the  lords  of  the  soil.  The  injustice  is  deepened,  and 
becomes  infamy,  when  it  is  remembered  that  they  had 
been  large  gainers  by  the  Pestilence.  Not  only  did  the 
amounts  paid  in  fees  and  fines — in  many  cases  repeatedly, 
within  a  few  months,  for  the  same  property — make  up  an 
enormous  aggregate  in  proportion  to  the  capital  value, 
but  large  tracts  of  land  had  reverted  to  the  lords  through 
the  extinction  of  families  and  the  failure  of  legal  heirs. 
Stewards  of  manors,  who  were  both  accusers,  or  claimants, 
and  judges,  often  displayed  malicious  cunning  in  cancel- 
ling contracts  of  labour,  of  fines  and  of  freedom,  and  in 
hunting  up  informalities  and  omissions  in  the  Manorial 
Court  Rolls,  so  as  to  reduce  tenants  and  villeins  to  the 
old  state  of  bondage.  No  remedy  was  to  be  had  in  the 
King's  Courts  ;  which  would  seldom  interfere.  Thus  the 
gentry  became  richer,  and  their  estates  larger.  Yet  they 
were  not  satisfied.  The  scarcity  of  labour,  induced  by 
the  Pestilence,  furnished  a  pretext  for  trying  to  revive 
in  their  worst  and  most  unjust  forms  some  of  the  old 
feudal  customs. 

Like  many  of  these  early  enactments,  the  first  Statute 
of  Labourers  presents  in  realistic  form  the  social  con- 
dition of  the  time.  Originally  issued  in  June,  1349,  as 
an  Ordinance  by  the  King  and  the  great  men — Parlia- 
ment being  unable  to  meet  because  of  the  Black  Death 
— it  finds  a  place  among  the  Statutes  of  the  Realm, 
although,  in  strictness,  it  is  not  an  enactment.  The 
preamble  states  that  "  a  great  part  of  the  people,  and 
especially  of  workmen  and  servants,  late  died  of  the 
pestilence,  many,  seeing  the  necessity  of  masters,  and 
great  scarcity  of  servants,  will  not  serve  unless  they  may 
receive  excessive  wages."  Every  man  and  woman,  free 
and  bond,  under  sixty  years,  not  a  trader,  craftsman,  or 
owning  or  tilling  land,  and  not  already  in  service,  was  to 
render  this  when  required.  The  wages  to  be  such  as 
were  usual  in  1347,  when  they  began  to  increase.  Lords 
v/ere  to  have  the  first  claim  on  their  tenants  and  bond- 
men. Refusal  to  serve  was  punishable  with  close  im- 
prisonment until  obedience  was  promised.      Any  reaper, 


362  STATUTES  OF  LABOURERS,  [chap.  xxii. 

mower,  or  other  servant,  leaving  without  cause  or 
license,  was  also  to  be  sent  to  gaol.  None  were  to  pay, 
or  promise  to  pay,  more  than  the  accustomed  wages  in 
1347.  Any  demanding  more  were  to  be  fined  in  double 
the  amount,  at  the  suit  of  any  informer, '  and  any  lord 
promising  to  pay  more  was  to  be  fined  treble.  All 
saddlers,  skinners,  cordwainers,  tailors,  smiths,  carpenters, 
masons,  tilers,  shipwrights,  carters,  and  other  artificers 
and  workmen,  were  not  to  ask  or  to  accept  more  than 
the  old  rates  of  wages,  under  pain  of  imprisonment. 
Butchers,  fishmongers,  hostellers,  brewers,  and  all  sellers 
of  victuals  were  to  make  reasonable  charges,  and  to  be 
content  with  moderate  gains,  under  penalty  of  paying 
double  to  the  buyer  or  the  informer.  Mayors  and  bailiffs 
neglecting  to  inquire  into  such  cases  were  to  be  amerced 
in  treble  the  amounts. 

The  gravamen  of  the  complaint  of  the  lords  was  not 
that  the  employers  could  not  afford  to  accede  to  the 
demand  for  increased  wages,  but  that  mere  tillers  of  the 
soil  had  the  temerity  to  assert  themselves  in  any  way 
whatever,  or  to  take  advantage  of  the  law  of  Demand 
and  Supply.  Competition  was  unknown  and  unrecog- 
nised. Anger  was  aroused  at  what  was  deemed  the  pre- 
sumptuous insolence  of  the  labourers  in  asking  for 
higher  wages,  and  refusing  to  work  at  the  old  rates  of 
payment.  The  Statute  speaks  of  "  the  malice  of  the 
servants  in  husbandry."  Its  intention  was  to  crush  and 
subdue  all  classes  of  labourers,  in  town  and  country,  who 
were  rising,  with  justice  and  the  laws  of  Nature  on  their 
side,  to  claim  a  fair  day's  wage  for  a  fair  day's  work. 
The  Statute  proved  inoperative,  as  was  inevitable,  in  the 
nature  of  the  case.  The  labourer  was  offered  wages  that 
it  was  worse  than  slavery  to  accept,  because  he  could 
not  subsist  upon  them  with  the  rapid  increase  in  the  cost 
of  living  that  attended  the  Pestilence  ;  and  yet,  on  refusal, 
he  was  to  be  treated  as  a  felon.  The  time  had  gone  by, 
and  the  power  no  longer  existed,  for  the  enforcement  of 
such  Procrustean  methods.  However,  they  were  persisted 
in,  until  their  unwisdom  and  impossibility  were  demon- 
strated by  repeated  failures  ;  involving  social  disaster  and 
political  revolution.  A  second  Statute  was  passed  in 
February,   135 1,  which  recited,    with   unconscious   irony, 


A.D.  1343-1360.]    WAGES  REGULATED.  363 

the  failure  of  the  first,  and  stigmatized  as  idle  and 
covetous  all  servants  who  demanded  higher  wages  than 
had  prevailed  before  the  Pestilence.  It  was  ordained 
that  agricultural  labourers  were  to  be  content  with  the 
average  rate  for  four  years  prior  to  1347;  to  receive  their 
pay  either  in  money  or  in  wheat  at  tenpence  a  bushel ; 
and  to  be  hired,  not  by  the  day,  but  by  the  year.  Mowers 
were  to  receive  fivepence  an  acre,  or  for  a  day's  work. 
Threshers  were  fixed  at  a  penny  a  quarter  for  barley, 
pease,  beans,  and  oats;  and  twopence  for  wheat  and  rye. 
Reapers  of  corn  were  assigned  twopence  a  day  for  the 
first  week  in  August,  and  threepence  for  the  following 
weeks ;  "  but  less  where  it  was  customary."  Those 
refusing  to  work  at  the  assigned  wages  were  to  be  put  in 
the  stocks  for  three  days  or  more,  or  sent  to  gaol.  Car- 
penters, tilers,  and  plasterers  were  to  have  threepence  a 
day,  masons  fourpence,  and  their  respective  "knaves,"  or 
common  helpers,  a  penny.  All  labourers  and  artificers 
were  to  be  sworn  twice  in  the  year  to  use  their  crafts  at 
the  rates  of  pay  in  1347  ;  subject  to  fine  and  imprison- 
ment. They  were  forbidden  to  leave  their  parishes  in 
search  of  more  remunerative  work,  under  penalty  of 
being  treated  as  runaways  and  masterless.  Towns  har- 
bouring them  were  to  be  fined  ten  pounds.  Large 
numbers  were  arrested  and  imprisoned  for  refusing  to 
work  at  the  old  and  inadequate  rate  of  wages,  and  heavy 
fines  were  levied  upon  those  who  paid  higher  prices. 

This  second  measure  also  failed  to  accomplish  the 
intended  object,  nor  could  it  be  secured  by  such  legis- 
lation. Seeds  of  hatred  were  sown  between  employers 
and  employed,  which  bore  a  prolific  crop  in  after  times, 
and,  like  thistledown,  was  self-perpetuating  for  generations. 
Irritation  thus  produced  rapidly  spread  on  all  sides.  Yet 
the  landed  class  would  not  abandon  the  repressive  and 
coercive  system.  Parliament,  consisting  exclusively  of 
that  class  and  its  immediate  adherents,  struggled  on  as 
doggedly  and  selfishly  for  the  mastery  over  the  labourers, 
as  at  other  times  for  the  subjugation  of  the  regal  pre- 
rogative, when  it  trenched  upon  the  privileges  of  their 
own  order.  The  marvel  is  that  open  rebellion  was  so 
long  delayed.  It  broke  out  in  due  time.  Meanwhile, 
another  and  more   drastic   Statute  was  passed,  in  1360, 


364  STATUTES  OF  LABOURERS,  [chap.  xxii. 


It  provided  that  all  offences  of  labourers  and  artificers 
under  former  Statutes  should  henceforth  be  punishable 
by  im[)risonment,  without  fine  or  bail.  A  blow  was 
aimed  against  combination,  by  a  clause  that  "  all  alliances 
and  covines  of  masons  and  carpenters,  and  all  congre- 
gations, chapters,  ordinances,  and  oaths  betwixt  them 
made,  shall  be  null  and  void."  Fugitive  and  negligent 
servants  were  to  be  outlawed,  imprisoned,  or  "  branded 
in  the  forehead  with  the  letter  F,  if  the  justices  saw  fit." 
This  was  a  prototype  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  of  the 
United  States  of  America  in  1850  ;  one  of  the  proximate 
causes  of  the  great  Civil  War  that  led  to  the  abolition  of 
slavery  in  that  country.  These  Statutes  of  Labourers, 
notwithstanding  their  outrageous  injustice  and  their 
manifest  futility,  were  confirmed  and  extended  by  other 
enactments  in  1368,  in  1389,  in  1403,  in  1406,  in  1444, 
in  1495,  and  subsequently.  Failure  induced  obstinacy. 
New  and  harsher  expedients  were  devised,  but  all  proved 
inoperative.  Yet  these  Statutes  were  not  repealed  until 
the  fifth  year  of  Elizabeth,  or,  after  more  than  two 
centuries.  Even  then,  other  legislative  attempts  were 
made  to  achieve  the  same  impossible  end. 

The  immediate  object  of  all  the  above  enactments,  in 
conformity  with  a  deep-seated  and  long  prevalent  delusion, 
w-as  to  regulate  labour  and  wages  by  an  arbitrary  standard, 
fixed  to  suit  the  governing  classes.  A  further  design  was 
to  maintain  their  political  and  social  supremacy  by  keep- 
ing down  the  artisans  and  labourers.  Time,  Nature,  and 
circumstances  rendered  this  impracticable.  The  tendency 
was  for  wages  to  rise.  With  the  stipulation  for  increased 
pay,  the  popular  spirit  became  less  tractable,  not  to  say 
less  servile.  For  the  first  time,  "  landless  men "  were 
able  to  control  the  labour  market.  Twenty  years  after 
the  first  attack  of  the  Black  Death,  harvest  wages  had 
doubled,  despite  the  law^ ;  infractions  of  w'hich  had  to  be 
connived  at.  Wages  never  again  sank  to  their  former 
level ;  as  was  to  be  expected  in  the  natural  order  of 
things.  Nor  is  it  surprising  that  the  lords,  and  the 
master-class  generally,  felt  aggrieved  at  the  change,  and 
resented  an  industrial  revolution  brought  about  by  the 
irresistible  force  of  circumstances.  Hence  the  Legir-lature, 
composed  entirely  of  landowners  and  employers,  including 


A.D.  1 348-1360.]  FUTILE  ENACTMENTS.  365 

the  clergy  in  that  category,  sought  to  set  up  a  barrier 
against  the  rising  tide.  But  the  waters  gathered  volume 
and  force,  and  swept  away  their  puny  mounds  of  sand. 
Although  for  thirty  years  the  lords  and  landowners 
fought  against  the  complete  overthrow  of  mediaeval  serf- 
dom, its  fall  was  rendered  inevitable  by  the  Great  Pesti- 
lence. Practical  emancipation  was  finally  won  by  the 
popular  rising  of  1381.  The  landlords  had  to  learn, 
from  bitter  experience,  that  the  old  methods  of  cultiva- 
tion, and  the  old  system  of  tenure,  were  rendered  impos- 
sible by  the  economic  and  social  effects  of  the  great 
scourge  that  had  swept  over  the  country.  Tenants  who 
survived,  refused  to  pay  the  former  rents,  or  to  render 
the  ancient  dues  and  service.  They  threatened  to  leave 
their  holdings  unless  substantial  reductions  and  conces- 
sions were  made  by  the  landlords,  who,  with  so  much 
untilled  land  and  empty  mills,  were  constrained  to  yield.- 
The  modern  custom  is  for  landowners  to  maintain  a 
high  nominal  rent,  from  which  an  abatement  of  from  ten 
to  fifty  per  cent,  is  made  year  after  year,  as  1  matter 
of  pretended  favour ;  whereas,  in  fact,  no  more  is  paid 
than  the  land  is  worth  in  the  open  market. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

THE   PROTECTIVE   SPIRIT   AND    SUMPTUARY   LAWS. 
A.D.    1327-I363. 

The  successive  Statutes  of  Labourers,  though  harsh  and 
merciless,  were  among  the  signs  of  a  coming  social 
amelioration.  The  bow  could  not  be  always  bent.  Long 
before  the  first  of  these  arbitrary  measures  was  enacted, 
an  element  had  been  silently  working  that  was  destined 
to  effect  a  benignant  change.  Various  immunities  and 
privileges  had  been  purchased  from  different  monarchs, 
in  perpetuation  or  extension  of  ancient  usages  dating 
from  pre-Norman  times,  by  merchants  and  manufacturers, 
especially  in  the  woollen  and  cloth  trades.  Cities  and 
towns  became   wealthy  and   influential,   as   is  shown   by 


366  THE  PROTECTIVE  SPIRIT,  [chap,  xxiii. 

J.  R.  Green,  and,  more  fully,  in  his  wife's  book  on  town 
life  in  the  fifteenth  century.  Civic  rights  and  privileges 
were  valuable.  Municipal  burgesses  shared  in  rights  of 
common  and  of  pasturage  on  the  town  lands,  of  fishing 
in  the  town  river  and  meres,  of  free  passage  across  the 
town  bridge  and  ferry,  and  especially  in  the  right  to 
trade.  They  were  placed  in  mercantile  positions  superior 
to  those  granted  to  a  foreigner  or  to  the  denizen  of 
another  town.  They  had  exclusive  liberty  to  take 
apprentices.  They  were  assisted  in  enforcing  actions 
for  del)t  against  an  outsider  or  an  alien,  by  letters  from 
the  mayor,  who  also  enforced  compensation  for  or 
avenged  injuries  by  confiscating  the  goods  of  persons 
temporarily  resident  from  offending  towns.  Legal  safe- 
guards and  trade  privileges  fenced  them  round  on  every 
side.  There  were  correlative  duties  and  obligations, 
such  as  undertaking  a  share  of  municipal  work ;  paying 
certain  taxes  and  dues  ;  serving  on  juries  ;  bearing  arms 
for  the  defence  of  the  borough ;  discharging  offices  that 
were  sometimes  irksome,  costly,  and  unpopular  ;  and  the 
inevitable  conflicts  that  arose  with  territorial  and  clerical 
magnates. 

Tillers  of  the  soil  remained  in  the  comparative  poverty 
and  servitude  described  in  the  ninth  Chapter ;  but  miti- 
gating circumstances  were  in  operation,  the  full  effects  of 
which  are  narrated  in  the  twenty-seventh.  The  superior 
comforts  enjoyed  by  the  artisan  in  a  borough,  even 
though,  for  the  present,  he  was  debarred  from  municipal 
rights,  unless  he  chanced  to  be  a  freeman,  could  not  fail 
to  inspire  servile  dependents  of  adjacent  manors  with 
a  wish  to  emancipate  themselves  from  a  condition  in 
which  they  scarcely  obtained  the  necessaries  of  life,  and 
none  of  its  conveniences.  If  some  little  stock  accumu- 
lated in  the  hands  of  a  poor  cultivator  of  the  soil,  who 
was  virtually  a  helot,  he  would  naturally  conceal  it  from 
his  lord,  to  whom,  by  law,  it  belonged,  and  he  would 
seize  the  first  opportunity  of  running  away  to  the 
nearest  town.  By  hiding  there  for  a  year  and  a  day 
from  the  pursuit  of  his  lord — a  custom  derived  from 
Saxon  times — he  became  a  freeman.  Abundant  proof 
exists  that  this  had  occurred  in  many  cases  long  before 
the  end  of  the  reign  of  Edward  III.     The   villeins  also 


A.D.  1 327- 1 363.]  MITIGATIONS  OF  VILLENAGE.    367 

aided  and  succoured  one  another.  It  was  complained  in 
Parliament  in  the  first  year  of  the  reign  of  Richard  II. 
(1377)  that  tenants  in  villenage  combined  to  defraud  the 
lords  of  their  rights,  and  that  stewards  of  manors  were 
unable  to  enforce  accustomed  services.  It  was  also  said 
that  corn  remained  on  the  ground  uncut,  because  villeins 
would  not  work  for  the  wages  fixed  by  the  Legislature  ; 
and  it  was  vaguely  stated  that  they  subscribed  large  sums 
of  money  for  mutual  support  and  defence.  As  was 
pointed  out  in  the  last  chapter,  one  of  the  Statutes  of 
Labourers  was  directed  against  this  early  form  of  labour 
combination  and  Trade  Unionism  ;  to  which  special 
objection  was  taken  by  the  ruling  and  privileged  classes. 
A  few  years  later,  the  spiritual  and  temporal  nobility 
complained  in  Parliament  that  their  villeins  behaved  so 
insolently  that  their  masters  were  afraid  of  exercising 
legal  authority,  for  fear  of  losing  them  irrecoverably. 
Thus  the  condition  of  villenage  was  becoming  mitigated, 
and  was  destined  soon  to  vanish.  It  continued  to  be 
recognised,  in  theory,  upon  the  Statute  Book  for  more 
than  two  centuries  after  the  death  of  Edward  III.  But 
a  body  of  free  peasantry  was  springing  up,  whose  position 
ranked  with  that  of  freemen  in  towns.  Gradually,  the 
yeoman  class  was  forming ;  destined  to  become  the 
sturdy  backbone  of  the  nation  in  subsequent  struggles 
with  kingly  absolutism,  with  titled  monopoly,  and  with 
ecclesiastical  greed.  In  so  far  as  baronial  power  was 
inimical  to  popular  rights,  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  in  the 
next  century  served  to 'Create  an  equipoise  by  bringing 
about  the  fall  of  the  baronage. 

The  earliest  legislative  mention  of  beggars  occurs  in 
one  of  the  Statutes  of  Labourers,  in  1389.  The  evil 
must  have  been  growing  for  generations ;  especially 
under  the  indiscriminate  doles  given  at  the  gate  of  every 
monastery.  Their  stoppage  at  the  time  of  the  Dissolu- 
tion under  Henry  VIII.  was  not,  as  is  commonly  alleged, 
the  cause  of  the  terrible  pauperism  of  the  sixteenth 
century.  This  had  been  increasing  for  two  hundred 
years  ;  in  spite  of  legislative  prohibitions.  The  per- 
nicious teaching,  inculcated  by  the  Romish  Church,  that 
charitable  gifts  were  highly  meritorious,  acting  as  a 
vicarious   offering,    irrespective  or   in  lieu  of  a  holy  life, 


368  THE  PRO  TECTIVE  SPIRIT,  [chap,  xxiii. 

aggravated  the  social  wrong  by  encouraging  mendicity 
and  idleness.  With  these  grave  evils,  complicated  by 
the  labour  problems  of  the  day.  Parliament  set  itself  to 
deal.  As  early  as  1350,  the  giving  of  alms  to  "valiant 
beggars "  was  forbidden.  Idleness  was  regarded  as  a 
crime,  demanding  sharp  punishment.  How  to  apply 
this  was  the  difificulty.  The  natural  as  well  as  the 
Scriptural  penalty  for  the  man  who  will  not  work  is 
that  he  shall  not  eat.  There  were  not  a  few  who 
shirked  labour,  and  tried  to  subsist  on  the  bounty  of 
others.  Malingering  and  idleness  are  of  ancient  date. 
Such  were  to  be  compelled  to  earn  their  own  liveli- 
hood by  honest  work.  Disturbances  during  the  Wars  of 
the  Roses ;  changed  conditions  arising  from  the  growing 
substitution  of  free  labour  for  feudal  service,  and  from 
new  methods  of  land  tenure  and  agriculture ;  futile 
attempts  to  interfere  with  the  working  of  economic  laws, 
as  in  the  Statutes  for  regulating  apparel  and  diet  by  a 
vain  sumptuary  process,  and  in  the  Statutes  of  Labourers ; 
and  the  social  upheavals  that  were  taking  place,  all  con- 
tributed to  produce  a  state  of  things  that  taxed  the 
sagacity,  the  resources,  and  the  courage  of  rulers  and  ad- 
ministrators. They  had  to  deal  with  the  results  of  an 
emancipation  which  was  slowly  and  silently  taking  place. 
While  villenage  existed,  the  lord  was  bound  to  maintain 
the  villein,  even  though  he  was  a  helpless  and  useless 
cripple.  The  moment  he  became  free,  it  followed  that, 
if  in  poverty  and  want,  he  must  be  left  to  the  charity  of 
neighbours,  or  to  such  provision  as  society  might  m.ake. 

In  this  way,  the  English  Poor-Law  had  its  origin. 
The  initiation  of  the  Law  of  Settlement  is  found  in  the 
Statute  of  1389,  which  prohibited  any  labourer  from 
departing  from  his  usual  locality  without  a  testimonial 
from  the  justices  of  the  peace ;  stating  reasonable  cause. 
Any  one  wandering  without  such  a  certificate  was  to  be 
placed  in  the  stocks  until  he  found  surety  to  return  to  his 
own  place.  It  must  have  been  equivalent  to  perpetual 
detention,  and  to  virtual  slavery,  if  rigorously  enforced. 
Impotent  persons  were  to  remain  in  the  towns  in  which 
they  resided  at  the  time  of  the  passing  of  the  Act ;  but  if 
the  inhabitants  were  unable  or  unwilling  to  support 
them,  they   were  to  withdraw   elsewhere,  or   go   to  their 


A.D.  1327-1363]  PAUPERISM.  369 

birthplace.  It  was  also  ordered,  and  this  was  confirmed 
in  1403,  that  in  every  future  appropriation  of  the  emolu- 
ments of  a  parish,  or  in  any  new  appointment,  the 
diocesan  should  assign  a  convenient  portion  to  be  dis- 
tributed yearly  for  ever  among  the  poor.  These  pro- 
visions were  enforced  by  other  Statutes  during  the  next 
hundred  and  twenty  years,  without  much  practical  effect. 
Pauperism  was  not  curable  by  such  empirical  methods  ; 
whether  legislative  or  eleemosynary.  The  disorder,  and 
lawlessness  of  the  times,  the  disbanding  of  mercenary 
troops  hired  for  the  French  invasions,  and  especially  the 
protracted  Civil  Wars  in  the  next  century,  led  to  ever- 
increasing  throngs  of  beggars,  outlaws,  and  rufifians.  A 
Statute  of  1494  directed  vagabonds,  or  idle  and  suspected 
persons,  to  be  set  in  the  stocks  for  three  days  and  nights, 
with  no  other  sustenance  but  bread  and  water,  and  then 
to  be  put  out  of  the  town.  Whoever  gave  them  relief 
was  to  forfeit  twelve  pence.  Every  beggar  not  able  to 
work  vv^as  to  resort  to  the  Hundred  where  he  was  born 
or  dwelt  last ;  and  remain  there.  Excepting  such  an 
occasional  outburst  of  vigilance  and  severity,  when  the 
nuisance  became  unbearable,  not  much  notice  was  taken, 
so  long  as  they  fought  among  themselves  or  quietly 
rotted  and  died.  But  the  evil  assumed  portentous 
dimensions  in  the  time  of  Henry  VIH.,  and  was  dealt 
with  in  the  fashion  peculiar  to  the  age. 

The  woollen  manufacture  appears  to  have  existed  as 
early  as  the  time  of  Henry  H.  It  was  made  the  subject 
of  governmental  regulation  under  Richard  I.  During 
the  Plantagenet  period,  it  grew  and  flourished.  For 
centuries  it  was  justly  regarded  as  the  principal  industry, 
and  the  main  source  of  wealth.  At  various  times, 
flemish  workmen,  who  excelled  in  this  branch  of  textile 
manufacture,  were  encouraged  to  settle  here ;  especially 
in  Norfolk,  Suffolk,  and  Essex ;  but  wool  was  still  more 
largely  exported.  From  the  earliest  records,  down  to 
the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  England  possessed 
a  virtual  monopoly  of  the  wool  trade.  On  account  of  the 
scarcity  of  money.  Subsidies  granted  by  Parliament  were 
usually  paid  in  this  commodity.  A  sack  of  wool,  which 
then  contained  three  hundred  and  sixty-four  pounds, 
26 


370  THE  PROTECTIVE  SPIRIT,  [chap,  xxiir. 

was  worth  twenty  pounds  in  the  markets.  To  this  day, 
the  official  seat  of  the  Lord  Chancellor,  as  president  or 
Speaker  of  the  House  of  Lords,  is  styled  the  Woolsack  ; 
dating  from  the  time  when  the  prosperity  of  the  country 
rested  uj)on  that  valuable  article.  The  Ordinances  of 
the  Staple  form  a  lengthy  and  an  important  series  of 
early  legislative  enactments.  One  of  the  most  minute 
was  passed  in  1353.  Hitherto,  the  Staple,  or  autho- 
rised and  exclusive  market  for  wool  had  been  commonly 
held  in  some  part  of  the  Continental  possessions.  A 
curious  change  has  come  over  the  word,  as  is  the  case 
with  many  other  old  English  words;  such  as  "artisan," 
"blackguard,"  "defalcation,"  "demure,"  and  "gossip." 
Originally,  the  Staple  referred  solely  to  the  place ;  not 
to  the  commodity  or  any  particular  trade.  Edward  L 
bought  from  the  Duke  of  Brabant  the  town  of  Antwerp, 
and  established  there  the  foreign  centre  of  the  wool-trade 
with  the  Flemings.  The  prosperity  of  many  flourishing 
towns  in  the  Low  Countries,  like  Bruges,  Ypres,  and 
Ghent,  each  of  which  had  thousands  of  looms  and  of 
cloth-workers,  depended  on  the  facilities  for  obtaining 
the  raw  material  from  this  island.  Henceforth,  how- 
ever, from  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century,  in 
order  to  ensure  the  Customs'  dues,  payment  was  to  be 
made  at  home.  Certain  places  were  appointed  for 
England,  Wales,  and  Ireland,  whither  all  goods,  in- 
cluding wool,  lead,  and  tin,  were  to  be  brought  for  sale. 
The  chief  of  these  Staple  towns  in  England  were  London, 
Winchester,  Bristol,  Exeter,  Lincoln,  Norwich,  Canter- 
bun,',  York,  and  Newcastle.  After  being  weighed  and 
marked,  and  the  duty  paid,  but  not  till  then,  the  com- 
modities might  proceed  to  their  destination.  The 
amount  of  tax  payable  was  six  and  eightpence  for 
each  sack  of  wool,  or  for  three  hundred  wool-fells ;  twenty 
shillings  for  a  half  last — six  dozen — of  hides  ;  and  three- 
pence per  pound  on  the  value  of  tin  and  lead.  People 
were  absolutely  prohibited  from  sending  out  of  the 
country  various  home  products.  They  were  forbidden, 
under  penalty  of  death,  and  the  forfeiture  of  all  their 
property,  from  exporting  any  goods  other  than  through 
the  official  channels  or  the  appointed  Staple  towns,  or 
from  being  interested,  even  indirectly,  in  any  sales  abroad. 


A.D.  1337-1363.]     CUSTOMS'  DUTIES.  371 

Regulations  such  as  these  were  based  on  the  vicious 
principle  of  seeking  to  enhance  revenue  at  the  expense 
of  commerce  ;  oblivious  of  the  fact  that  such  vexatious 
interference  and  harassing  restraints  are  destructive  of  all 
enterprise  in  trade,  and  tend  to  the  impoverishment  of  the 
country.  The  value  of  wool,  wool-fells,  cloth,  and 
worsted-stuffs  exported  in  1354,  was  two  hundred  and 
twelve  thousand  pounds,  on  which  the  Customs'  duties 
amounted  to  eighty-two  thousand,  or  nearly  two-fifths. 
Of  the  total  exported,  nine-tenths  were  raw  materials. 
In  1362,  a  right,  long  demanded,  was  secured  by  an 
enactment  that,  in  future,  no  Subsidy  should  be  set  on 
wool  without  the  assent  of  Parliament.  This  was  con- 
firmed nine  years  later;  and  thus  a  wearisome  contest 
for  the  maintenance  of  one  branch  of  the  royal  pre- 
rogative was  terminated  by  victory  for  the  nation.  The 
exactions  on  manufactured  cloth  exported  were  also 
subjected  to  Parliamentary  control,  after  a  similar 
struggle.  Another  irregular  tax  was  made  the  subject 
of  a  legislative  grant,  in  1373,  under  the  name  of 
Tunnage  and  Poundage.  Hitherto,  vexatious  levies 
had  been  imposed  on  every  tun  of  wine,  and  on  the 
nominal  value  of  merchandise  at  the  ports  of  entry, 
by  the  caprice  of  the  royal  officers ;  giving  rise  to 
constant  disputes  and  irritation,  or  opening  a  wide 
door  to  bribery  and  nepotism.  It  was  now  decided 
that  the  levy  should  be  two  shillings  a  tun  on  wine, 
and  sixpence  in  the  pound  on  the  value  of  imported 
goods ;  with  ten  shillings  on  each  sack  of  wool  ex- 
ported. By  these  successive  steps  in  a  troublesome 
process,  Customs'  duties  were  brought  within  the  annual 
purview  of  the  Legislature,  instead  of  being  levied  and 
squandered,  as  heretofore,  at  the  mere  will  of  the 
monarch.  The  Commons  were  resolute  that  no  dis- 
tinction should  be  drawn  between  direct  and  indirect 
taxes,  but  that  both  alike  should  be  regulated  by 
Statute  law.  No  serious  attempt  at  arbitrary  taxation 
of  merchandise  by  royal  prerogative  was  made  after  the 
reign  of  Edward  III.,  until  the  insensate  policy  which 
cost  Charles  I.  his  throne  and  his  life,  and  led  ultimately 
to  the  expulsion  of  the  Stuarts. 

Many  of  the  trading  guilds  or  fraternities   existing  in 


372  THE  PROTECTIVE  SPIRIT,  [chap,  xxiii. 

I>()iulon  and  other  great  towns,  as  has  been  already 
stated,  were  continuations,  in  new  forms  and  with  added 
rights  and  privileges,  of  those  that  antedated  the  Norman 
period.  Others  were  subsequent  creations,  and  a  few 
were  incorporated  by  Charter  in  the  time  of  Edward  III. 
The  numerous  weavers'  guilds  show  how  widely  and 
rapidly  the  cloth  trade  had  extended.  Soon  afterwards, 
they  were  designated  Livery  Companies  ;  from  the  dis- 
tinctive dress,  or  livery,  worn  by  their  members.  In 
effect,  these  companies  were  monopolies.  They  served 
in  some  ways,  a  useful  purpose  for  the  time,  but  they 
exercised  what  would  now  be  deemed  tyrannical  inter- 
ference over  individuals,  and  they  operated  in  restraint  of 
trade  for  the  benefit  of  a  favoured  few.  For  nearly  five 
hundred  years  the  Protective  Spirit  was  rampant  in  every 
department  of  Church  and  State.  The  history  of  progress, 
in  matters  of  trade  and  of  opinion,  is  a  continuous 
struggle  against  that  spirit.  The  struggle  has  yet  to  be 
waged  to  its  final  victory,  notwithstanding  the  great 
results  that  have  been  achieved.  Ignorance,  folly,  and 
selfishness  are  perpetually  trying  to  put  back  the  clock. 
The  prevalent  notion  was  that  men  and  women  were  but 
children  of  a  larger  growth,  who  needed  to  be  inspected, 
coerced,  restrained,  controlled,  and  legislated  for  in  every- 
thing that  related  to  their  private  and  public  life. 

Such  paternal  government,  however  appropriate  to 
Oriental  despotism,  is  unsuited  to  a  free  people.  The 
hoary  heresy  is  not  yet  extinct,  even  in  England.  Indeed, 
there  is  a  disposition  and  a  resolute  effort  to  revive  and 
extend  it.  The  Circumlocution  Office  is  not  peculiar  to 
any  age,  and  the  Tite  Barnacle  class  is  prolific.  In  the 
Middle  Ages,  this  spirit  ran  to  excess  of  riot ;  producing 
untold  and  incalculable  mischief  in  every  department  of 
human  life.  Individualism  was  then  nothing.  Personal 
enterprise  was  discouraged  or  repressed.  The  Reign  of  Law 
became  an  intrusive  espionage  and  a  grinding  tyranny. 
People  were  peremptorily  ordered  what  to  eat,  drink,  do, 
and  avoid.  Their  business,  their  dress,  their  recreations 
were  prescribed.  They  were  told  what  to  believe  and 
how  to  worship.  No  divergence  was  allowed  from  the 
regulation  patterns.  If  these  were  infringed,  condign 
punishment  was  inflicted.      There  were  minor  fines  and 


A.D.  1327-1363.]  APPAREL  AND  DIET.  373 

imprisonments  for  what  were  adjudged  to  be  slight 
offences ;  while  the  more  aggravated  were  visited  with 
longer  incarceration,  heavier  mulcts,  severe  whippings, 
mutilation,  banishment,  or  death.  Diversity  and  individu- 
alism, alike  in  things  civil  and  ecclesiastical,  were  rigidly 
forbidden  and  severely  punished.  Herbert  Spencer,  in  a 
letter  to  'The  Times,'  November  15,  1889,  stated,  on  the 
authority  of  the  Vice-President  of  the  Incorporated  Law 
Society,  that  of  eighteen  thousand  Public  Acts  of  Parlia- 
ment passed  from  20  Henry  III.  to  the  end  of  1872,  four- 
fifths  have  been  wholly  or  partially  repealed,  and  that, 
within  ten  years,  six  hundred  and  fifty  Acts  of  the  present 
reign  had  been  repealed,  besides  many  of  preceding  reigns. 
One  exasperating  form  of  the  carrying  of  paternal 
government  to  excess  is  furnished  in  a  long  series 
of  Sumptuary  Laws  ;  alike  ridiculous  and  ineffectual. 
However  stringent,  they  were  always  cunningly  evaded, 
if  not  openly  defied.  The  first  known  instance  was  a 
provision  made  by  the  Great  Council,  so  far  back  as 
1 197,  for  regulating  the  manufacture  and  srJe  of  cloth. 
It  was  to  be  two  ells  in  width,  and  no  colour  but  black 
might  be  sold,  except  in  cities  and  boroughs.  Similar 
regulations  were  issued  from  time  to  time  with  regard  to 
the  apparel  and  diet  of  various  classes.  A  Statute  of 
1336  commences  thus  : — "Whereas,  through  the  excessive 
and  over-many  sorts  of  costly  garments  w^hich  the  people 
have  used,  many  mischiefs  have  happened,  for  the  great 
men  have  been  sore  grieved,  and  the  lesser  people,  who 
only  endeavour  to  imitate  the  great  ones  in  such  sort  of 
meats,  are  much  impoverished,  w'hereby  they  are  not 
able  to  aid  themselves  nor  their  liege-lord  in  time  of 
need,  as  they  ought."  It  was  therefore  ordained  that 
such  persons  should  restrict  themselves  in  their  diet. 
Another  enactment,  of  1363,  runs  as  follows: — "P'or  the 
outrageous  and  excessive  apparei  of  divers  people,  against 
their  estate  and  degree,  to  the  great  destruction  and 
impoverishment  of  all  the  land,  it  is  ordained  that 
grooms  and  artificers  shall  be  served  with  meat  and 
drink  of  flesh  or  of  fish,  and  the  remnant  of  other 
victuals,  as  of  butter  and  cheese,  according  to  their 
estate  ;  and  that  they  have  clothes  for  tlieir  vesture  or 
hoseing  whereof  the    whole  cloth   shall   not   exceed  two 


374  THE  PROTECTIVE  SPIRIT,  [chap,  xxill. 

marks ;  and  their  wives,  daughters,  and  children  shall 
be  of  the  same  condition  in  their  apparel,  and  they  shall 
wear  no  veils  (or  kerchiefs)  passing  twelve  pence."  Handi- 
craftsmen and  yeomen  were  forbidden  to  wear  cloth  of  a 
higher  price  than  forty  shillings  the  piece.  They  were 
prohibited  from  using  cloth  of  gold  or  silver,  girdles, 
knives,  buttons,  rings,  garters,  ribbons,  chains,  or  em- 
broidery. Women  of  that  condition  were  not  to  wear 
any  fur,  other  than  that  of  lamb,  coney,  cat,  or  fox. 
A  graduated  style  of  dress  was  rigidly  prescribed  for 
merchants,  burgesses,  esquires,  knights,  and  other  classes. 
Carters,  ploughmen,  and  all  persons  that  had  not  forty 
shillings  of  goods  and  chattels,  were  not  to  wear  any 
manner  of  cloth  but  blanket  and  russet,  of  twelve  pence 
a  yard  ;  and  in  eating  and  drinking  they  were  to  live 
"  after  the  manner  pertaining  to  them,  and  not  exces- 
sively"  under  pain  of  forfeiture.  The  makers  and 
vendors  of  cloth  were  to  be  constrained  to  assist  in  carry- 
ing out  this  Ordinance  "  by  any  manner  that  shall  seem 
best  to  the  King  and  his  Council." 

The  '  Liber  Albus,'  or  White  Book,  of  the  City  of 
London,  and  all  the  older  municipal  records,  with  those 
ot  the  Exchequer,  furnish  many  other  illustrations  of  the 
way  in  which  personal  liberty  was  interfered  with.  Arbi- 
trary Ordinances  and  Proclamations  regulated  manu- 
factures, agriculture,  industry,  and  locomotion.  Markets 
were  not  allowed  to  be  held  without  a  Charter,  or  to  be 
opened  for  the  day  until  the  purveyors  for  the  King  and 
for  the  great  lords  had  helped  themselves  to  such  com- 
modities as  they  desired,  and  at  prices  which  they  chose 
to  fix ;  irrespective  of  the  wishes  and  necessities  of 
the  vendors  and  of  the  natural  law  of  Supply  and 
Demand.  Further  illustrations  are  given  in  the  next 
chapter.  Dealings  were  permitted  only  with  certain 
persons,  or  in  restricted  places,  or  within  defined 
hours,  or  under  artificial  regulations.  Domiciliary  visits 
were  not  uncommon,  at  any  time  of  the  day  or  night,  on 
various  pleas  and  pretexts,  for  search  and  examination. 
Numberless  petty  checks  were  impcsed  upon  industry 
and  upon  the  course  of  trade.  In  some  cases,  fairs  were 
prolonged  for  several  weeks,  and  attracted  multitudes  of 
people.     Commodities  of  all  sorts  could  thus  be  procured 


A.D.  1327-1363.]  ASSIZE  OF  BREAD  AND  ALE.     375 

for  domestic  use,  and  for  personal  luxury  and  adornment, 
at  a  time  when  village  shops  were  unknown  ;  besides 
horses,  cattle,  corn,  and  provisions  of  every  kind. 
Charters  were  purchased  from  the  monarch  or  from 
some  great  lord,  for  leave  to  hold  these  markets  and 
fairs  at  certain  times ;  no  fewer  than  five  thousand  local 
centres  of  trade  being  thus  created  between  the  years 
1200  and  1482.  During  the  time  allotted  to  the  fairs  it 
was  not  infrequent  to  forbid  all  trade  in  the  surrounding 
districts.  Such  vexatious  interference  with  the  liberty 
of  the  subject  was  not  unusual.  Commerce  was  made 
to  wear  swaddling  bands,  in  order  that  royal  needs 
might  be  gratified,  or  that  royal  favourites  might 
enjoy  lucrative  monopolies.  These  Court  harpies  were 
also  permitted  to  tamper  with  the  coinage.  Constant 
complaints  were  heard  of  its  debasement ;  leading  to 
untold  loss  and  misery.  Among  the  chief  fairs  were 
those  of  Sturbridge,  Abingdon,  and  Winchester.  The 
first-named  was  the  largest  and  most  important ;  resem- 
bling the  great  modern  fair  of  Novgorod,  in  Russia,  or 
that  of  Weyhill  hop  and  stock  fair;  though  now  scarcely 
remembered  in  the  locality.  It  was  held  in  a  field  about 
a  mile  from  Cambridge,  during  the  month  of  September. 
In  his  work  on  '  Agriculture  and  Prices,'  Professor  Thorold 
Rogers  has  drawn  a  vivid  picture  of  the  busy  scene. 

One  final  illustration  may  be  given  of  the  rampant 
Protective  Spirit.  Among  the  Statutes  of  the  Realm 
some  are  grouped  under  the  title  of  Statutes  of  Uncertain 
Date.  They  are  conjectured  to  belong  to  the  reign  of 
Henry  III.,  Edward  I.,  or  Edward  II. ;  most  probably 
the  last-named.  One  of  them,  known  as  the  Assize  of 
Bread  and  Ale,  contains  curious  regulations  respecting 
the  ingredients,  prices,  and  profits  of  those  articles. 
Infringement  was  punishable,  in  the  case  of  men,  by  the 
pillory  ;  and  in  that  of  women  by  the  tumbrel — i.e.^  the 
ducking-stool — or  by  whipping.  As  this  Statute  failed 
in  its  object,  another  enactment  was  made.  It  was  not 
more  successful,  and  is  chiefly  noticeable  because  it  con- 
tains the  first  legislative  reference  to  forestalling  and  re- 
grating.  The  former  practice  was  the  intercepting  of 
provisions  on  their  way  to  the  open  market.  The  latter 
was  selling  them  a  second  time  in  the  same  market :  in 


376  POWER  OF  PARLIAMENT,  [chap.  xxiv. 

other  words,  wholesale  dealing  and  re-sales.  This  was  for- 
bidden, under  stringent  penalties,  but  it  was  not  pre- 
vented. \'ain  attempts  were  made  to  fix  the  rates  of 
profit.  Ingenious  and  elaborate  regulations  were  devised 
to  secure  in  markets  that  food,  clothing,  and  other  neces- 
saries of  life  should  be  cheap  and  good ;  but  the  rules 
were  inoperative  in  actual  working,  in  so  far  as  they 
interfered  with  the  freedom  of  trade.  Even  the  laudable 
object  of  guarding  against  local  dearth,  owing  to  the 
difficult,  tedious,  and  costly  means  of  transit,  was  con- 
stantly defeated  by  the  prevalent  spirit  of  monopoly, 
with  law  on  its  side.  The  practices  complained  of  could 
not  be  suppressed  by  enactments.  All  the  legislative 
leading-strings,  invented  by  ancestral  meddlesomeness, 
signally  failed  to  achieve  their  absurd  and  impossible 
ends.  They  stand  on  the  Statute  Book  as  melancholy 
monuments  of  imbecility.  The  necessity  for  the  warning 
has  by  no  means  yet  passed  away.  Human  folly  crops 
up  in  every  age,  and  in  unexpected  ways.  It  is  the 
unknown  quantity  which  no  Calculus  can  determine. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

RISING   POWER   OF   PARLIAMENT. 
A.D.    I327-1377. 

Purveyance  was  an  evil  of  long  standing;  in  spite  of 
incessant  protests  and  dogged  resistance.  It  was  a  pre- 
tended right  of  purchasing  for  the  royal  household,  "at 
a  fair  price,"  whatever  was  necessary,  in  preference  to 
every  competitor,  and  without  the  consent  of  the  owner. 
The  prerogative  was  also  claimed  to  impress  carriages 
and  horses  for  the  King's  use  and  that  of  his  retinue.  The 
custom,  defended  on  the  tyrant's  plea  of  necessity,  had 
prevailed  for  ages,  not  only  in  England,  but  throughout 
Europe.  Frequendy  it  degenerated  into  violence  and 
extortion,  under  the  name  of  law.  Royal  purveyors 
seized  what  they  liked  in  the  house  or  the  field,  in  the 
open  market  or  along  the  road ;  paid  what  they  chose  j 


A.D.  1327-1377.]  PURVEYANCE.  377 

or  made  promises  to  pay ;  or  gave  tallies  upon  an  empty 
Exchequer.  Incessant  complaints  arose ;  culminating 
in  resistance  and  squabbles.  Numerous  Statutes  were 
framed  to  deal  with  the  evil.  Still  it  went  on  ;  sometimes 
worse  than  at  other  times ;  but  during  the  thirteenth 
and  fourteenth  centuries  it  became  a  galling  tyranny. 
The  Court  was  in  perpetual  motion,  and  seemed  ubi- 
quitous. There  were  few  places  where  a  sight  of  it  was 
rare.  Seldom  did  the  monarch  remain  a  month  in  one 
place.  Usually,  he  was  moving  every  few  days.  The 
'Itinerary'  of  Edward  I.  shows  that  in  the  year  1300 
he  changed  his  abode  seventy-five  times,  or,  on  an 
average,  thrice  in  a  fortnight,  without  once  leaving  the 
country.  With  the  court  there  was  always  a  large 
retinue  of  nobles,  marshals,  scribes,  cooks,  minstrels, 
body-servants,  grooms,  and  all  the  paraphernalia  for 
administering  justice  and  following  sport  ;  with  a  miscel- 
laneous following  of  dependents  and  expectants,  includ- 
ing not  a  few  doubtful  and  notorious  characters.  In  the 
incessant  progress  of  this  small  army,  the  purveyors 
sallied  forth  on  all  sides,  like  locusts,  taking  and  devour- 
ing what  they  chose.  Live  and  dead  stock,  field  and 
garden  produce,  clothing  of  all  kinds,  articles  of  adorn- 
ment and  luxury,  as  well  as  the  commonest  necessaries 
and  the  simplest  implements,  were  freely  appropriated 
by  these  legalized  cormorants.  Every  shopkeeper 
trembled  for  his  wares ;  every  farmer  for  his  stock ; 
every  artisan  for  his  tools  ;  and  every  housewife  for  her 
poultry  and  eggs.  The  keepers  of  stalls  in  fairs  and 
markets  knew  not,  when  setting  forth  in  the  morning, 
whether  they  would  be  permitted  to  sell  their  goods  for 
what  they  would  fetch  by  free  barter.  Archbishop 
Islip,  who  filled  the  See  of  Canterbury  from  1349  to 
1366,  vividly  described,  in  a  letter  to  Edward  III.,  the 
common  feeling  of  indignation  and  resentment. 

The  evil  grew,  in  spite  of  complaints  and  of  resistance, 
and  in  defiance  of  Ordinances  and  Statutes,  until  the 
year  1362,  when  a  considerable  though  not  an  absolute 
reform  was  effected.  Subsequent  legislation,  of  a  more 
stringent  kind,  had  to  be  employed  at  frequent  intervals. 
In  times  of  civil  war,  Purveyance  was  often  revived  as  an 
engine  of  oppression.      The  scandalous  custom  did   not 


378  POWER  OF  PARLIAMENT,    [chap.  xxiv. 

wholly  cease  until  it  was  abolished  in  the  time  of 
Charles  II.,  with  other  antiquated  Crown  rights  and 
feudal  usages.  The  claim  was  the  more  oppressive  and 
unpopular  because  it  was  not  restricted  to  the  monarch 
and  his  immediate  Court.  High  officers  of  State  and 
great  noblemen  asserted  it ;  relying  upon  their  power 
and  influence ;  and  the  example  was  copied  by  their 
underlings.  The  right  of  nominally  purchasing  men's 
goods  for  the  use  of  the  King  was  also  easily  extended  by 
analogy  to  their  labour,  which  was  often  enforced  at  the 
busiest  seasons  of  agriculture.  Windsor  Castle  was  built 
by  masons,  carpenters,  tilers,  and  other  handicraftsmen 
impressed  from  every  part  of  the  kingdom,  at  such  wages 
as  the  royal  officers  chose  to  pay.  Edward  III.  issued  a 
commission  to  all  sheriffs  to  supply  as  many  painters  as 
might  suffice  "  for  our  works  in  St.  Stephen's  Chapel, 
Westminster,  to  be  at  our  wages  as  long  as  shall  be 
necessary,"  and  he  gave  orders  to  "  arrest  and  keep  in 
prison  all  who  should  be  refractory." 

This  hateful  grievance  was  the  more  intolerable  because 
other  parts  of  the  feudal  system  had  largely  ceased.  The 
theory  was  that  in  every  case  the  market  value  of  goods 
or  labour  should  be  paid.  In  practice,  there  were  in- 
numerable frauds,  quibbles,  and  extortions.  Persons 
whose  commodities  or  service  had  been  forcibly  taken,  at 
a  price  arbitrarily  fixed  by  irresponsible  officials,  were 
referred  by  them  from  one  to  another  for  payment  that 
was  often  evaded  and  was  always  deferred.  The 
Treasurer  of  the  Household  sent  them  to  the  Sheriff, 
who  passed  them  back  to  the  Exchequer,  whence  they 
were  referred  to  some  one  else.  The  object  was  to  weary 
them  out,  or  to  extort  costly  gifts  and  fees  in  order  to 
expedite  the  business,  or  the  acceptance  of  a  smaller 
sum  than  was  justly  due ;  the  difference  being  appropri- 
ated by  the  officials.  "  How  not  to  do  it,"  was  practised 
in  perfection.  Every  demand,  how^ever  just  and  reason- 
able, was  subjected  to  vexatious  scrutiny  and  wearisome 
delays.  Lawyers  were  as  expert  then  as  now  in  inter- 
posing technicalities  and  quirks.  If  these  did  not  already 
exist,  it  was  easy  to  invent  them.  Prolonged  anxiety, 
trouble,  suffering,  and  loss  were  thereby  entailed.  It 
was  bad  enough  that  men  were  made  to  sell  their  soods 


A.D.  1 327- 1 377- J      PUBLIC  OPINION.  379 

without  their  own  consent,  and  at  prices  in  the  fixing  of 
which  they  bore  no  part.  It  was  worse,  and  was  adding 
insult  to  injury,  to  haggle  over  and  to  escape  payment. 

With  the  growth  of  the  trading  classes  and  their 
increase  in  wealth,  and  especially  with  the  extension  of 
municipal  rights  and  immunities,  such  evils  met  with  an 
effectual  cure.  The  principles  of  civil  liberty  had  struck 
deep,  and,  like  the  fibrous  roots  of  the  ivy,  were 
destined  to  shatter  the  stern  rock  of  despotism.  In  this 
period  the  growth  may  be  distinctly  traced  of  what  is 
now  clearly  understood  as  public  opinion,  which  was 
matured  and  strengthened  by  subsequent  events.  In  the 
noble  language  of  Burke: — "Always  acting  as  if  in  the 
presence  cf  canonized  forefathers,  the  spirit  of  freedom 
carries  an  imposing  and  majestic  aspect.  It  has  a  pedi- 
gree, and  illustrious  ancestors.  It  has  its  gallery  of 
portraits;  its  monumental  inscriptions;  its  records, 
evidences,  and  titles."  During  all  this  time,  and  amidst 
the  excitement  of  the  wars  with  Scotland  and  with 
PVance,  the  powers  and  forms  of  Parliament  were  con- 
solidating. With  silent  energy,  happily  unknown  to 
those  who  might  otherwise  have  striven  to  control  or 
suppress  it,  favouring  circumstances  carried  on  the  pro- 
cess of  adapting  old  institutions  to  new  conditions  ;  the 
beginning  of  which  was  explained  in  the  fifteenth  and 
seventeenth  Chapters.  The  principle  that  the  consent  of 
the  taxed,  personally  or  by  deputy,  was  essential  before 
any  impost  could  be  levied,  gradually  received  full 
acknowledgment.  Burgesses  from  cities  and  towns,  as 
well  as  knights  from  the  counties,  had  been  incorporated 
as  integral  parts  of  the  legislative  body.  The  next  step 
was  to  settle  upon  an  immutable  foundation  the  practice 
that  had  so  often  been  employed  of  coupling  the  redress 
of  grievances  with  the  granting  of  supplies ;  and  to 
make  the  former  precede  the  latter. 

Thus  the  stately  fabric  of  English  liberty  slowly  rose, 
stage  by  stage,  through  much  toil  and  with  many 
sacrifices ;  each  generation  adding  some  buttress,  or 
pillar,  or  adornment  ;  trusting  that  posterity  would 
perfect  the  work  and  enjoy  the  full  reward.  In  the 
time  of  Edward  III.,  no  fewer  than  seventy  Parliaments 
and    Great    Councils  were   convened.     Westminster    was 


38o  POWER  OF  PARLIAMENT,    [chap.  xxiv. 

the  usual  meeting-place,  although,  for  political  or  sanitary 
reasons,  a  provincial  city  was  sometimes  chosen.  This 
occurred  twenty-eight  times  in  the  reign  of  the  first 
three  Edwards.  The  Writs  of  Summons,  prepared  in 
Chancery  under  the  Great  Seal,  are  still  extant.  The 
occasion  and  object  of  the  assembly,  with  the  time  and 
})lace,  are  stated.  When  the  advice  and  assistance  of  the 
baronage  were  desired  in  some  emergency,  it  seems  to 
have  been  usual  to  call  a  Great  Council.  At  other 
times,  and  more  commonly,  for  the  purpose  of  granting 
supplies  and  making  laws,  a  Parliament  was  summoned. 
The  number  of  elected  members  fluctuated ;  apparently 
at  the  caprice  of  the  sovereign,  or,  perhaps,  by  the 
action  of  his  sheriffs ;  for  the  same  places  were  not 
always  the  recipients  of  writs.  Occasionally,  they  re- 
turned only  one  member.  At  length,  a  general  rule 
prevailed  that  each  of  the  thirty  seven  counties,  with 
a  variable  number  of  boroughs,  the  average  from  1382 
to  1454  being  about  one  hundred,  sent  two  members, 
chosen  from  within  their  own  bounds.  Security  had  to 
be  given  for  their  due  attendance.  The  allowance  was 
two  shillings  a  day ;  knights  of  the  shire  receiving  double 
that  sum. 

Gradually,  the  knights  and  the  burgesses  formed  a 
distinct  body,  and  deliberated  apart  from  the  nobles  and 
prelates.  The  precise  date  of  this  separation  into  two 
Houses  is  unknown  ;  though  it  was  effected  prior  to  the 
close  of  the  fourteenth  century ;  but  the  need  must  soon 
have  arisen,  and  the  convenience  is  obvious.  For  nearly 
two  hundred  years,  the  Commons  met  in  the  Chapter 
House  of  Westminster  Abbey ;  which  thus  became  the 
cradle  of  popular  liberties  as  well  as  the  scene  of  regal 
coronations.  What  was  done  for  special  and  temporary 
purposes,  such  as  the  voting  of  a  Subsidy,  and  its  appor- 
tionment among  the  three  Estates  of  Peers,  Clergy,  and 
Commons,  was  at  length  continued  for  all  matters  as  an 
abiding  arrangement.  Frequent  conferences  took  place 
between  the  respective  bodies,  by  means  of  chosen 
delegates.  The  clergy  had  their  separate  gatherings  in 
Convocation,  for  discussing  all  questions  pertaining  to 
the  Church,  but  especially  for  granting  their  own  quota 
of  the  taxes.     They  continued  To  do  this,  with  a  suspen- 


A.D.  1 32 7- 1 37 7.]  REDKESS  OF  GRIEVANCES.  3S1 

sion  in  the  time  of  the  Commonwealth,  until  after  the 
Restoration  of  the  Stuarts.  The  customary  hour  of  the 
meeting  of  Parliament  was  eight  in  the  morning.  On 
the  opening  day  the  roll  was  called  in  the  presence  of  the 
King;  on  whose  behalf  some  high  officer  of  State  made 
an  address,  declaring  the  objects  for  which  the  assembly 
was  convened.  Absence  without  sufficient  excuse  was 
punishable  by  heavy  fines.  Every  project  of  law  under- 
went the  scrutiny  of  the  two  Houses  before  being  offered  for 
the  royal  assent.  Each  House,  in  process  of  time,  became 
a  check  upon  the  other,  and  upon  the  prerogatives  of  the 
('rown.  Thus  the  English  Constitution  combined  the 
advantages  of  a  monarchical,  an  aristocratic,  and  a 
democratic  form  of  government,  at  the  same  time  that 
it  lent  itself  to  such  modifications  as  future  needs 
demanded.  True,  the  powers  of  the  House  of  Commons 
were  at  first  restricted,  and  its  intervention  in  public 
concerns  was  infrequent,  and  not  always  effectual ;  but 
there  was  a  gradual  alteration  and  extension  under  the 
pressure  of  circumstances. 

Numerous  illustrations  occur  during  the  protracted 
reign  of  Edward  HI. ;  such  as  have  been  mentioned  in 
connection  with  the  French  Wars.  Repeated  complaints 
were  made  by  the  Commons,  with  demands  for  the 
abolition  of  illegal  taxes,  because  levied  without  their 
concurrence.  Protests  may  have  seemed  in  vain ;  but 
they  continued  to  be  made  until  a  claim  of  right  was 
acknowledged.  Sometimes,  the  King  formally  declined ; 
and  then  the  representations  were  renewed  more  urgently. 
Sometimes  he  mingled  cajolery  with  falsehood.  Some- 
times, with  a  cynical  disregard  of  morality  and  honour, 
he  issued  an  order  to  the  sheriffs,  declaring  null  and  void 
his  assent  given  to  petitions  in  Parliament,  as  "contrary 
to  the  laws  and  customs  of  our  realm  and  to  our  pre- 
rogative and  rights."  This  was  notably  the  case  in  1341, 
when  he  said  that  he  had  been  "compelled  to  dissimu- 
late, and  pretend  to  grant  what  was  contrary  to  sound 
policy."  Cervantes  dubbed  Mendez  Pinto  (1509- 15 83), 
the  Portuguese  traveller,  "  the  prince  of  liars."  The 
epithet  would  apply  to  Edward  HI.,  for  he  never 
hesitated  to  lie  roundly  and  boldly  when  occasion 
prompted.     Sometimes   he    pleaded   an   emergency,   and 


383  POWER  OF  PARLIAMENT,    [chap.  xxiv. 

promised  that  a  particular  tax  should  not  be  drawn  into 
a  precedent.  Whenever  the  Commons  refused  further 
grants,  he  tried  to  soothe  them  with  new  concessions, 
wliich  were,  not  infrequently,  withdrawn  when  the 
exigency  ceased;  for  Edward  III.  was  alike  fertile  in 
expedients  and  a  master  of  tergiversation.  Falsehood 
appears  to  be  an  attribute  of  royalty.  It  is  appalling  to 
think  how  many  of  the  English  monarchs  were  ingrained 
and  unblushing  liars.  The  famous  saying  of  Epimenides 
with  regard  to  the  people  of  Crete,  as  quoted  in  the 
Epistle  to  Titus  (i.  12),  is  strictly  true  of  most  of  the 
occupants  of  the  English  throne,  so  far  as  regards  their 
lack  of  veracity. 

The  earliest  known  instance  of  an  account  being 
rendered  to  Parliament  respecting  a  money  grant,  occurs 
in  1340,  when  the  barons  appointed  receivers  of  the 
accounts  of  the  tax-collectors,  because  it  was  alleged  that 
the  amount  paid  into  the  Exchequer  did  not  correspond 
with  that  voted.  This  was  a  decided  step  towards  assert- 
ing a  right  of  control  over  the  expenditure.  Nor  was 
such  a  course  long  delayed.  Fourteen  years  subsequently. 
Parliament  annexed  to  a  Subsidy  a  condition  that  the 
money  raised  should  be  devoted  to  the  expenses  of  the 
war  then  waging  with  France ;  and  to  no  other  object. 
In  like  manner,  in  1346,  when  the  King,  by  Proclama- 
tion, required  every  owner  of  land  to  furnish  for  the  war 
in  France  horsemen  and  archers,  in  proportion  to  the 
value  of  the  estates,  or  a  certain  sum  of  money  in  lieu 
thereof  from  every  city  and  borough,  the  Commons 
objected  that  the  Ordinance  had  been  issued  without 
their  consent.  Urgency  was  pleaded,  with  the  further 
excuse  that  the  measure  had  been  approved  by  the 
Lords,  and  a  promise  was  given  that  it  should  not  be 
repeated.  The  Conmions  remained  firm,  and  renewed 
their  remonstrances,  until  it  was  enacted  that  no  such 
order  should  in  future  take  effect  without  the  full  consent 
of  Parliament.  It  did  not,  of  course,  follow  that  when  a 
petition  was  granted  for  the  redress  of  such  grievances, 
the  object  was  always  secured.  There  was  a  diversity  in 
method.  In  some  cases,  the  petitions  submitted  in 
Parliament  by  the  Commons  required  embodiment  in  a 
Statute,  enacted  with  the  assent  of  the  other  Estates   of 


A.D.  1327-1377.]  FORMA  TION  OF  STA  TUTES.  383 

the  Realm,  and  that  became  a  perpetual  record.  In 
other  cases,  a  Charter,  or  a  letter,  or  a  mere  verbal 
promise,  was  obtained  from  the  King.  The  promises 
were  conveniently  forgotten  at  times,  or,  if  embodied  in 
Statutes,  these  were  not  always  issued  to  the  proper 
officials  for  publication  in  the  County  Courts,  fairs,  and 
markets.  They  might  contain  no  provisions  for  enforce- 
ment, or  they  were  suspended  by  arbitrary  power. 
Occasionally,  they  were  altered  to  suit  the  royal  wishes. 
As  the  same  boroughs  did  not  always  receive  election 
writs,  and  as  members  were  not  of  necessity  returned  to 
successive  Parliaments,  such  forgetfulness,  or  manipula- 
tion, or  culpable  suppression  was  easy. 

To  remedy  this  state  of  things,  the  Commons  asked 
that  petitions  might  be  reduced  to  proper  form  before 
they  dispersed,  so  as  to  ensure  accuracy,  and  in  order 
that  the  record  might  afterwards  be  appealed  to.  After 
this  reasonable  method  had  been  repeatedly  urged,  often 
promised,  and  as  often  evaded,  it  was  expressly  provided 
when  the  Ordinances  of  the  Staple  were  enacted  in  1354, 
that  no  alterations  or  additions  should  be  made  in  future 
without  the  knowledge  and  assent  of  the  two  Houses. 
Thus  the  Statute  Book  gradually  acquired  salutary  pro- 
visions for  securing  the  national  freedom,  and  some  of 
the  worst  administrative  abuses  and  scandals  were  effectu- 
ally checked.  Even  the  exigencies  of  the  wars  with 
France  compelled  constant  applications  to  Parliament, 
and  materially  strengthened  its  influence.  Yet,  in  the 
last  year  of  the  reign,  when  the  boundaries  of  prerogative 
had  been  somewhat  sharply  defined  and  curtailed,  the 
King  claimed  the  right  to  •  impose  charges  upon  his 
subjects,  "in  cases  of  great  necessity,  and  for  the  defence 
of  the  kingdom ; "  language  very  different  from  the 
usual  vocabulary  of  abolutism,  and  indicating  a  healthy 
change  in  the  methods  of  kingly  government,  which, 
after  long  fretting  impatiently  at  the  curb,  began  to 
acknowledge  the  restraining  hand  of  law. 

Nor  was  it  only  in  the  matter  of  taxation  that  the 
House  of  Commons,  by  its  firm  and  persistent  attitude, 
consolidated  its  rights  against  regal  aggression.  Such  a 
national  Legislature,  slowly  concreting  under  the  stress 
of  home  and  foreign  affairs,  learned  to  take  up  subjects 


3S4  rOWER  OF  PARLIAMENT,   [chap.  xxiv. 

of  wider  scope  than  local  needs,  rival  civic  interests, 
re,^ulatioiis  for  specific  trades,  or  even  pressing  public 
grievances  and  the  imposition  of  taxes.  It  enlarged  its 
province,  and  successfully  interfered  by  advice  and  control 
in  the  general  administration  of  affairs,  or  in  politics, 
properly  so  called.  It  energetically  resisted  the  varied 
powers  which  the  Popes  still  assumed  to  exercise  within 
the  realm,  and  the  enormous  influence  acquired  by  the 
clergy  through  their  growing  numbers  and  wealth. 
Complaints  were  made  that  the  great  ofifices  of  State 
were  monopolized  by  clergymen.  Collisions  soon  became 
habitual,  and  paved  the  wov  for  the  Reformation  of  the 
sixteenth  century.  The  Commons  also  turned  their 
attention  in  a  special  degree  to  trade  and  industry, 
souglit  to  renjedy  abuses  at  elections,  and  took  an  active 
part,  in  joint  Committees  of  the  two  Houses,  in  investi- 
gating matters  of  the  highest  concern  to  the  nation.  In 
1366,  their  opinion  was  sought  by  the  King  as  to  the 
course  to  be  pursued  if  the  Pope  carried  out  a  threat  to 
summon  him  to  Avignon,  in  default  of  paying  the  tribute 
pretended  to  have  been  conceded  by  King  John.  Three 
years  later,  their  judgment  was  asked  as  to  a  renewal  of 
the  war  with  France ;  meaning,  at  their  expense.  Facts 
like  these,  and  many  others  that  might  be  cited,  demon- 
strate the  immense  progress  made  in  representative 
government  through  the  House  of  Commons,  in  par- 
ticular during  the  hundred  years  since  the  days  of  Simon 
de  Montfort.  In  the  enacting  clauses  of  Statutes  passed 
in  the  reign  of  Edward  III.,  mention  of  the  Commons  is 
rarely  omitted.  Much  was  also  done  at  their  urgent 
instigation  to  expedite  and  cheapen  the  administration 
of  justice.  The  Rolls  of  Parliament  abound  with  com- 
plaints of  the  nepotism  and  favouritism  of  the  royal 
officers,  including  judges  and  sheriffs,  who  were  armed 
with  powers  that,  in  the  hands  of  corrupt  men,  degene- 
rated into  tyranny.  Some  effectual  checks  were  imposed. 
One  beneficial  reform  was  a  provision,  in  1362  that  all 
iudicial  proceedings  were  to  be  conducted  in  the  English 
language,  instead  of  in  Norman-French,  which  the 
common  people  did  not  understand.  When  Parliament 
assembled  in  the  next  year,  the  Chancellor's  opening 
speech  was  delivered  in  English.     This  is  mentioned  as 


A.D.  1 327- 1 377.]       IMPEACHMENTS.  385 

something  remarkable,  and  as  if  it  were  the  first  occasion 
of  the  kind. 

A  final  illustration  of  the  growing  powers  of  Parlia- 
ment— only  one  out  of  many  that  might  be  cited — is 
furnished  from  the  official  records  of  the  one  known  as 
the  Good  Parliament,  that  met  in  April,  1376,  and  sat 
for  nine  weeks  ;  then  deemed  an  extraordinary  period. 
A  graphic  narrative  of  its  proceedings,  from  the  pen  of 
an  anonymous  Chronicler,  is  given  in  the  twenty-second 
volume  of  '  Archseologia.'  Besides  granting  a  Subsidy, 
the  Commons  referred  in  plain  terms  to  the  great  waste 
of  the  courtiers ;  to  their  removal  of  the  Staple  from 
Calais  :  to  their  practice  of  usury  ;  and  to  their  purchase, 
for  their  private  advantage,  of  old  debts  due  to  the 
Crown.  For  these  and  other  misdemeanours  the 
Commons  impeached  Lords  Latimer  and  Neville,  and 
others,  who  were  subsequently  deprived  of  their  offices, 
banished,  or  imprisoned,  and  their  possessions  confiscated. 
Latimer  had  been  Court  Chamberlairt,  and  Neville  held 
the  office  of  Steward.  The  formei  was  the  friend  and 
creature  of  the  Duke  of  Lancaster,  son  of  the  King. 
Nor  was  this  Parliament  at  all  nice  in  touching  a  point 
where  Kings  least  endure  interference.  An  Ordinance 
was  made  that,  "  whereas  many  women  prosecute  the 
suits  of  others  in  courts  of  justice  by  way  of  maintenance, 
and  to  get  profit  thereby,"  —  in  other  words,  putting 
forward  and  sustaining  others  in  collusive  and  fraudulent 
suits  at  law, — "  which  is  displeasing  to  the  King,  he 
forbids  any  woman  henceforward,  and  especially  Alice 
Perrers,  to  do  so,  on  pain  of  the  said  Alice  forfeiting  all 
her  goods,  and  suffering  banishment  from  the  kingdom." 
Such  open  denunciation  of  the  royal  mistress  was  a 
resolute  act.  The  King  was  in  his  dotage,  and  was 
infatuated  with  her.  Even  Alexander  had  his  Thais. 
But  the  Commons  succeeded  in  their  action,  and  the 
woman  was  banished. 

The  impeachment  of  the  two  Ministers  named  forms 
a  valuable  historical  landmark.  It  is  the  earliest  instance 
of  a  successful  attack  upon  the  Executive.  The  Black 
Prince,  then  dying,  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  a  truly 
popular  movement  for  reform.  This,  and  not  his  military 
prowess,  constitutes  his  valid  claim  to  be  ranked  among 
27 


386  POWER  OF  PARLIAMENT,   [chap.  xxiv. 

England's  worthies.  Personal  responsibility  was  thus 
fixed  on  the  great  officers  of  State.  Futile  attempts  had 
been  made  to  secure  their  honesty  by  oaths  ;  the  binding 
force  of  which,  as  was  customary  for  generations,  was  in 
inverse  proportion  to  their  verbal  stringency.  Equally 
vain  efforts  had  been  made  to  punish  them  by  heavy 
fines,  when  they  exceeded  what  the  loose  morality  of  the 
age  regarded  as  permissible  malversation.  The  new 
method  of  impeaching  them  proved  a  sharp  and  an 
effectual  weapon,  although  it  was  often*  strained  to  in- 
justice for  partisan  ends.  Additional  means  were  adopted, 
as  already  mentioned,  to  ensure  an  efficient  audit  of  the 
accounts  of  the  Exchequer,  and  to  determine  the  way  in 
which  money  grants  should  be  expended.  The  principle, 
first  explicitly  yielded  in  1379,  soon  asserted  itself  in 
healthful  practice.  After  the  reign  of  Richard  II.,  ex- 
cepting in  times  of  civil  war,  treasurers  of  the  Subsidies 
were  regularly  appointed,  to  account  for  both  the  receipts 
and  the  issues  of  the  Exchequer,  before  another  grant 
was  made.  It  is  the  germ  of  the  modern  Appropriation 
Act.  Tiie  effect  was  to  control  the  national  policy,  as 
well  as  to  define  and  enforce  ministerial  responsibility. 

No  fewer  than  one  hundred  and  forty  petitions  from 
the  Commons  were  presented  and  answered  during  the 
memorable  assembly  of  1376.  Its  records  note  also  the 
election  of  Sir  Peter  de  la  Mare  as  foreman,  or  Speaker, 
as  he  is  afterwards  called.  Some  such  official  must  have 
existed  already,  but  this  is  the  earliest  formal  recognition. 
It  was  further  asked  that,  in  future,  knights  of  the  shires 
might  be  properly  chosen,  and  not  merely  nominated  by 
the  sheriffs  without  actual  election  in  the  County  Courts. 
The  whole  scope  of  the  requests  made  and  conceded  in 
this  assembly  proves,  not  so  much  that  there  had  been 
deliberate  attempts  to  retard  the  growth  of  popular 
freedom,  as  that  the  government  was  carelessly  and 
ineffectually  administered.  There  had  not  been,  perhaps, 
a  set  purpose  to  establish  despotic  rule,  but  the  desire  or 
the  determination  was  lacking  on  the  part  of  powerful 
officials  to  enforce  existing  laws,  and  no  effectual  checks 
were  imposed  against  peculation.  True,  John  of  Gaunt, 
one  of  the  sons  of  Edward  III. — if  "  time-honoured,"  he 
was  also   time-serving — with   his    customary   self-seeking 


A.D.  1327-1377.]  CHARACTER  OF  EDWARD.  III.     3S7 

and  personal  ambition  set  himself  to  undo  or  to  neutralize 
this  partial  improvement.  The  title  of  Duke,  heretofore 
unknown  in  England,  had  been  created  in  favour  of 
Gaunt  and  his  brother  Lionel,  Duke  of  Clarence.  In  the 
declining  years  of  his  father.  Gaunt  became  virtual 
Regent ;  although  the  name  was  not  used.  But  he  had 
to  proceed  with  caution,  and  his  success  was  only  partial 
and  temporary.  By  a  straining  of  legal  forms,  he  im- 
prisoned Sir  Peter  de  la  Mare,  the  Speaker  of  the  Good 
Parliament  of  1376,  whose  procedure  was  inimical  to  the 
Duke.  He  succeeded  to  some  extent  in  1377  in  packing 
a  House  of  Commons,  which  reversed  the  policy  of  its 
predecessor,  and  the  more  easily  because,  through 
culpable  neglect  or  intentional  omission,  the  petitions  of 
the  Commons  had  not  been  embodied  in  Statutes,  as 
promised.  The  impeachments  of  Lord  Latimer  and  his 
confederates  were  set  aside,  as  the  Duke's  power  extended. 
For  all  this,  the  tide  of  progress  was  not  turned  back, 
though  its  course  was  stayed  for  the  time.  Walsingham's 
Chronicle  asserts  that  the  King  was  deserted  in  his  dying 
moments  by  his  servants,  and  by  the  woman  who  had 
captivated  him  for  her  own  mercenary  ends.  The  poet 
Gray  has  vividly  depicted  the  scene  in  his  well-known 
Sonnet. 

Edward  HL  was  not  a  statesman,  in  the  proper 
acceptation  of  that  term  ;  although,  but  for  his  irre- 
pressible warlike  propensities,  he  might  have  taken,  in 
the  work  of  useful  and  constructive  legislation,  a  part  as 
distinguished  as  his  grandfather  had  done.  He  married 
four  of  his  sons  to  the  heiresses  of  great  English  families  ; 
but  these  alliances  were  dearly  purchased,  for  they 
brought  into  the  royal  family  the  unquenchable  feuds 
and  rivalries  of  generations,  ard  were  among  the  causes 
ihat  led  to  the  disastrous  Wars  of  the  Roses  in  the 
following  century.  This  was  a  continuance  of  the  policy 
of  his  grandfather,  under  whom  no  fewer  than  seven  out  of 
the  twelve  greatest  English  earldoms  came  into  the  royal 
house  through  escheat  or  marriage.  Edward  the  Third's 
abilities  were  great,  but  he  devoted  them  almost  ex- 
clusively to  projects  of  foreign  conquest.  His  military 
ambition  made  him  unscrupulous,  extravagant,  and 
ostentatious.     Maintenance    of    the    supremacy   did    not 


388  POWER  OF  PARLIAMENT,   [chap.  xxiv. 

trouble  him,  ?ior  the  loss  of  prerogatives  for  which  his 
predecessors  had  struggled.  By  his  repeated  violations 
of  solemn  pledges  made  in  Parliament  he  did  much  to 
break  down  "  the  divinity  that  doth  hedge  a  king."  The 
glamour  of  Froissart's  narrative  has  invested  him  with  a 
factitious  importance,  and  has  imparted  to  his  reign  a 
false  glitter  that  deludes  all  who  do  not  look  beneath  the 
surface.  The  expenditure  of  life  and  money  on  wars  of 
annexation,  with  the  immediate  loss  and  suffering,  were 
incalculable.  To  rank  him  with  great  captains  and 
strategists  would  be  absurd.  As  a  soldier,and  a  legislator, 
he  looms  large  between  his  father  and  his  grandson,  who 
preceded  and  followed  him  on  the  throne  ;  but  in  both 
capacities  he  dwarfs  into  mediocrity  when  compared  with 
Edward  I.  or  William  I.  Contemporary  writers,  while 
extolling  his  renown  as  a  general,  depict  the  internal 
state  of  the  country  and  the  sufferings  of  the  people  in 
terms  that  constitute  a  dark  and  awful  background  to  the 
brilliant  chivalry  described  by  Froissart  in  his  minute  and 
spirited  but  superhcial  Chronicle,  or  by  Lawrence  Minot 
in  his  short  poems  on  Edward's  victories. 

The  death  of  Edward  III.,  June  21,  1377,  devolved  the 
Crown  upon  his  grandson  ;  a  boy  of  eleven  years,  son  of 
the  Black  Prince,  who  pre-deceased  his  father.  The 
authority  of  John  of  Gaunt  had  to  be  shared  with  other 
powerful  nobles  during  the  minority.  The  mention  of 
legislation  by  petition  from  the  Commons  gradually 
drops,  during  the  reign  of  Richard  II.,  and  the  form 
appears  of  enactment  by  the  King,  "with  the  assent  of 
the  Prelates,  Lords,  and  Commons."  This  was  not 
uniformly  employed  until  1445,  or  its  equivalent  phrase 
"  by  the  authority  of  Parliament."  By  that  time,  the 
method  of  legislative  procedure  was  virtually  settled  to 
be  by  a  Bill  originating  in  either  House.  From  the  end 
of  the  preceding  reign,  all  money  grants  were  made  by 
the  Commons,  with  the  advice  and  assent  of  the  Lords. 
The  three  separate  readings  of  all  measures  are  of  such 
ancient  usage  that  their  origin  cannot  be  traced.  The 
earliest  Rolls  of  Parliament  take  this  for  granted.  The 
minute  account  of  procedure,  written  by  Sir  Thomas 
Smith,  who  died  in  1577,  is  substantially  true  of  a 
much  earlier  period;   even  allowing  for  obvious  Tudoi 


A.D.  1327-1377.]  SPIRIT  OF  FREEDOM.  389 

innovations.  The  incidents  here  recorded  furnish  con- 
clusive proof  of  the  growth  of  constitutional  rights  and 
liberties  during  the  Plantagenet  period.  The  spirit  of 
freedom  perpetually  asserted  itself  in  successful  resistance 
to  prerogative  and  monopoly.  England  was  steadily 
advancing,  and  the  national  life  was  becoming  more 
vigorous  and  healthy.  Concessions  wrung  from  attempted 
absolutism,  in  return  for  financial  aid,  consolidated  into 
rights.  Patriots  in  after  times  were  inspired  and  en- 
couraged in  their  heroic  efforts,  under  circumstances  of 
peculiar  difficulty,  by  the  remembrance  of  their  fathers' 
victorious  struggles  when  the  problem  of  national  self- 
government  was  practically  worked  out,  and  precedents 
were  set  for  the  future.  The  successful  appeal  has 
always  been  to  axioms  that  no  sophistry  can  refute  and 
no  sceptre  can  abrogate. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 
"the  morning  star  of  the  reformation." 

A.D.    I377-1390. 

The  close  of  the  fourteenth  century  witnessed  the  dawn 
of  a  great  spiritual  awakening.  Deep  thoughts  began  to 
agitate  the  mind  of  Europe.  In  this  movement  England 
largely  participated.  Consentaneously,  there  was  a 
political  and  social  revolution  ;  the  importance  of  which 
is  sometimes  overlooked  in  the  turmoil  aroused  by  the 
mighty  ecclesiastical  cataclysm.  The  two  were  inter- 
twined, and  no  arbitrary  distinction  can  be  drawn.  For 
centuries,  the  Romish  Church  had  rendered  conspicuous 
service  to  civilization  and  humanity.  With  the  lapse  of 
time,  with  growing  worldly  power,  and  especially  with 
the  increase  of  wealth,  much  of  the  old  religionism 
became  effete.  As  is  the  case  with  all  human  systems, 
in  proportion  as  the  essence  was  lost,  the  casket  was 
more  sacredly  cherished.  Corruption  crept  into  the 
Church.  Spiritual  gangrene  supervened.  The  Church 
of  the  Avignon   Popes  was  not  that  of  St.   Augustine; 


390  MORNING  STAR  OF  REFORM  A  TION.  [chap.  xxv. 

still  less  was  it  the  Church  of  the  early  Fathers.  Its  vast 
official  army  had  forgotten  their  spiritual  vocation. 
They  schemed,  intrigued,  and  fought  for  secular  wealth, 
renown,  and  power,  and  aimed  to  secure  absolute 
spiritual  domination.  Then  arose  doubts,  murmurs,  pro- 
tests, and  resistance ;  signs  of  impending  change  which 
the  ecclesiastical  rulers  would  not  read,  or  could  not 
interpret.  They  resorted  to  the  stale  dogmatisms  and 
the  cunning  devices  of  priestcraft,  until  these  were  swept 
away  in  the  storm  of  the  Reformation. 

The  priesthood  kept  in  their  secret  armoury,  always 
ready  for  use,  potent  weapons  forged  by  themselves  for 
the  subjugation  of  the  human  intellect  and  conscience. 
In  his  '  History  of  Latin  Christianity,'  Dean  Milman 
describes  their  vast  power  and  influence.  The  whole 
range  of  literature  and  of  the  sciences,  so  called,  was  their 
exclusive  domain.  They  were  the  lawyers,  statesmen, 
amlmssadors,  historians,  poets,  philosophers,  and  doctors 
of  the  age.  Every  high  office  in  the  State,  and  many 
inferior  posts,  were  filled  by  them.  They  claimed 
absolute  power  to  declare  the  destiny  of  every  man. 
Though  their  prophecies  and  forecasts  were  as  intelligible 
as  those  of  Nostradamus,  to  doubt  their  sentence,  or  to 
ridicule  their  tawdry  paraphernalia  of  dogma  and 
mystery,  was  damnable.  They  were  clothed  with  a  kind 
of  omniscience,  through  knowledge  gleaned  in  the  con- 
fessional. No  act  was  beyond  their  cognizance.  Scarcely 
a  thought,  an  intent,  or  a  motive  could  be  kept  secret. 
They  were  an  ecclesiastical  police  and  a  judiciary,  before 
Avhich  every  man  was  required  to  appear  and  be  an  in- 
former against  himself.  From  the  lynx-eyed  scrutiny  of 
an  expert  and  critical  priest,  skilled  in  sophistry  and 
dialectics,  there  was  no  escape.  He  claimed  supernatural 
powers.  He  could  grant  or  withhold  absolution.  It 
was  within  his  discretion  to  impose  humiliating  penance. 
He  could  bestow  or  refuse  Sacraments  held  to  be  in- 
dispensable to  peace  and  salvation.  He  could  deny 
Christian  burial,  or  place  men  under  the  awful  ban  of 
excommunication.  By  means  of  Purgatory  he  held  in 
his  hands  the  doom  of  the  dead.  To  escape  from  it  there 
must  be  expiatory  Masses,  which  he  alone  could  perform, 
and    which    were    repeated   prefunctorily,   at    so    much   a 


A.D.  1 377- 1 390-]  CHURCH  ENCROA CHMENTS.  391 

dozen.  Thus  no  man  stood  alone  and  erect.  He  carried 
a  heavier  burden  than  Sindbad.  Out  of  the  pale  of  the 
Church  there  was  no  salvation.  Apart  from  the  priest- 
hood, there  was  no  Church.  Orders,  once  granted,  were 
indelible,  save  for  heresy.  Personal  character  had 
nothing  to  do  with  the  efficacy  of  spiritual  acts.  The 
priest  might  be  proud,  sordid,  and  sensual.  It  mattered 
not,  so  far  as  concerned  the  validity  of  his  offices.  He  was 
part  of  a  mighty  system  that  extended  over  Christendom, 
like  a  huge  net  with  close  meshes.  This  solidarity  of 
interests  made  the  Church  irresistible.  Her  officials  owed 
supreme  allegiance  to  herself.  They  were  clerics  first, 
and  Englishmen  a  long  way  afterwards.  Temporal 
authority  was  recognised  only  as  a  subordinate  and  an 
inferior  claim.  Cardinals  were  princes,  with  the  revenues 
of  provinces.  Bishops  were  magnificent  nobles.  The 
Papal  Legate  was  the  equal  of  kings,  and  exacted  instant 
compliance  with  the  decrees  which  he  promulgated. 
The  Head  of  the  Church  was  the  embodiment  of  its 
vast,  though  vague  authority,  and  fulminated  from  the 
Vatican  in  a  way  that  secured  prompt  and  universal 
obedience.  He  was  the  fountain  of  all  clerical  authority, 
and  the  dispenser  of  blessings  and  curses. 

Added  to  all  this,  the  inordinate  wealth  of  the  Church, 
accumulated  during  centuries  in  every  part  of  Europe, 
gave  an  influence  and  a  power  to  the  hierarchy  that 
made  it  dangerous  to  society.  Although  successive 
Statutes  of  Mortmain  had  been  passed,  to  stop  the 
perpetual  encroachments  of  the  Church  upon  the  landed 
property  of  the  realm,  and  although,  by  other  enact- 
ments, the  subtlety  of  statesmen  at  length  baffled  the 
subtlety  of  churchmen,  yet  the  latter  were  left  in  posses- 
sion of  nearly  all  that  had  been  heaped  upon  them  by  the 
unwise  prodigality  of  former  ages,  and  by  the  lavish 
bequests  of  dying  sinners  in  their  fright.  Money  could 
effect  anything.  Baptism,  marriage,  confession,  absolu- 
tion, extreme  unction,  burial,  and  every  priestly  act, 
required  payment,  in  addition  to  tithes  and  other  obla- 
tions so  rigorously  exacted.  The  gates  of  Purgatory  and 
of  Paradise  were  supposed  to  swing  upon  golden  hinges, 
and  could  be  opened  only  with  a  golden  key.  As  Fuller 
says  —  "Not    the    least    clapper   in    the   steeple   ringing, 


392  MORNING  STAR  OF  REFORMATION,  [chap.  XXV. 

except  money  was  tied  to  the  rope";  or,  according  to 
iMassinger— "  Money  is  the  picklock  that  never  fails." 
It  was  inevitable,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  that  fallible 
men,  arrogating  such  exceptional  and  universal  powers, 
often  wielded  them  for  selfish  and  ignoble  purposes. 
Church  authority  became  a  relentless  mechanism  for 
crushing  all  who  were  opposed  to  the  dogmatic  and 
official  embodiment  of  Christianity.  Four  times  every  year 
a  solemn  curse  was  pronounced,  with  much  histrionic 
display  and  ritualistic  millinery,  against  all  who  inter- 
fered with  the  rights,  privileges,  immunities,  and  mono- 
polies of  the  Church ;  meaning  thereby,  as  has  often 
been  the  case,  among  Pagans  as  well  as  Christians, 
Protestants  as  well  as  Catholics,  the  huge  organized 
community  of  priests.  Denunciations  were  launched 
against  all  who  offended  in  the  slightest  degree  with 
regard  to  ecclesiastical  tithes,  offerings,  and  fees,  or  who 
invoked  the  civil  against  the  ecclesiastical  courts  in 
defence  of  personal  rights.  Three-fourths  of  the  com- 
minations  were  directed  against  such  as  presumed  to  dis- 
regard the  exclusive  pretensions  of  the  priesthood,  or  did 
not  implicitly  believe  in  their  Eleusinian  mysteries.  In 
this  way  a  mighty  fabric  of  tyranny  was  reared  on  a 
foundation  of  imposture. 

The  clergy,  as  a  body,  including  the  Monks  and  the 
Friars,  were  numerous  and  rich.  They  wielded  vast 
political  and  social  influence.  In  the  House  of  Lords 
they  were  in  a  majority.  In  the  two  Convocations  of 
Canterbury  and  York,  they  had  special  powers.  The 
bishops,  by  virtue  of  their  baronies,  and  the  abbots,  as 
holding  great  landed  property,  exercised  jurisdictions  and 
franchises  like  territorial  nobles.  The  spiritual  courts 
possessed  a  far-reaching  and  inquisitorial  system  of  judi- 
cature, with  a  perpetual  tendency  to  assume  larger 
powers.  Jurisdiction  was  claimed  over  everything  that 
had  to  do  with  faith  and  morals,  with  contracts  and 
promises,  and  with  all  that  was  supposed  to  relate  to 
"  the  health  of  the  soul."  This  phrase  was  elastic ;  con- 
venient ;  and  an  endless  source  of  profit.  Not  only  did 
it  apply  to  such  matters  as  attendance  at  church,  ritual 
proprieties,  the  observance  of  oaths,  the  payment  of 
clerical  dues,  speaking  evil  of  Saints,  drunkenness,  and 


A.D.  1377-1390.]  ECCLESIASTICAL  COURTS.  393 

other  open  scandals  ;  but  it  was  strained  so  as  to  take 
cognizance  of  almost  every  human  act  and  relationship. 
There  was  scarcely  an  offence  or  a  culprit  too  small  or 
too  great  to  be  a  matter  of  inquiry  under  this  complex, 
minute,  and  searching  ecclesiastical  code.  Matrimonial 
and  testamentary  jurisdiction  was  a  lucrative  source  of 
revenue  to  the  Church,  and  gave  rise  to  vexatious  and 
costly  litigation  in  the  Consistory  Courts.  These  were 
not  regulated  by  ordinary  methods  of  judicial  procedure. 
They  were  presided  over  by  the  bishops  or  their  repre- 
sentatives, who  levied  uncertain  but  enormous  fees  and 
fines,  and  imposed  arbitrary  penances.  A  further  profit- 
able and  irritating  method  was  to  prosecute  all  who 
complained  of  the  constitution  or  the  methods  of  the 
Courts.  To  do  so  was  to  complain  against  Holy  Church  ; 
and  that  was  heresy.  The  arm  of  the  Church  was  long  ; 
and  her  grip  was  mortal. 

In  this  way,  from  the  bishop  or  the  archdeacon  down 
to  the  meanest  apparitor,  there  were  inducements  to 
turn  alleged  spiritual  crimes  into  sources  of  gain. 
England,  in  common  with  Christendom,  was  covered 
with  an  elaborate  web  of  Canon  Law,  from  which  it  was' 
next  to  impossible  for  any  one  to  escape.  Over  the  wide 
domain  of  property,  as  well  as  of  moral  delinquency, 
there  were  two  sets  of  courts  and  lawyers.  Jealousy, 
friction,  and  collision  were  incessant.  The  country  was 
irritated  ;  and  the  feeling  sometimes  broke  out  into  open 
violence.  Petitions  in  Parliament  were  presented  against 
clerical  encroachments  and  arrogance.  From  the  time 
of  the  Conquest  down  to  the  Reformation,  a  continued 
rivalry  was  waged  between  the  temporal  and  the 
ecclesiastical  powers.  To  restrain  the  latter,  the  authority 
of  the  Crown  and  of  the  Legislature  was  repeatedly 
invoked ;  with  varying  success.  An  effectual  remedy 
was  not  devised  until  the  final  rupture  with  Rome. 
Another  evil  had  grown  up  during  the  Middle  Ages, 
known  as  Benefit  of  Clergy.  Originally,  it  consisted  in 
the  privilege  allowed  to  a  clerk  in  holy  orders  to  appeal 
from  the  temporal  authorities  to  the  ecclesiastical  when 
charged  with  any  offence.  Claims  were  set  up  that  the 
latter  should  alone  possess  jurisdiction  over  clerics, 
however  heinous    their   crimes.     To   such  an  extent  was 


394  MORNING  STAR  OF  REFORMA  TION.  [chap.  xxv. 

this  carried,  tfiat  any  one  who  declared  that  he  meant 
to  enter  holy  orders,  or  any  member  of  the  army  of 
subordinate  satellites  connected  with  the  Church,  might 
demand  to  be  handed  over  to  the  spiritual  courts.  The 
usual  test  was  the  ability  to  repeat  the  first  verse  of  the 
fifty- first  Psalm  ;  popularly  called  the  neck-verse,  as  it 
often  saved  a  man  from  the  hangman's  rope.  Thus  the 
privilege  was  strained  so  as  to  cover  any  who  by  infe- 
rence could  be  regarded  as  belonging,  however  vaguely 
or  remotely,  to  the  clerical  order.  The  dangerous  im- 
munity secured  for  such  persons,  when  charged  with 
crimes,  often  including  murder,  rape,  and  robbery,  was 
not  limited  or  controlled  until  1488,  and  a  yet  more 
stringent  Statute  had  to  be  enacted  in  1532. 

The  parishes  in  England  barely  exceeded  eight  thou- 
sand ;  but  the  clerics  were  four  or  five  times  that 
number,  including  acolytes  and  sub-deacons,  apparitors 
and  sumpnours.  Monks  and  Friars,  unattached  officials 
and  subordinates,  private  chaplains  and  chantry  priests. 
The  majority  of  ordained  persons  held  no  cure  of  souls 
and  had  no  specific  duty  of  preaching.  Their  chief 
function  was  to  say  Masses  for  the  dead.  No  induce- 
ment existed  for  study  or  labour.  They  merely  had  to 
carry  on  a  ceaseless  round  of  performances  ;  mumbling 
Litanies  and  Masses  at  a  fixed  rate  of  payment.  The 
assigned  task  was  formal  and  perfunctory,  and  could 
have  been  performed  with  automatic  regularity,  and 
with  equal  efficacy,  by  the  praying  machines  driven  by 
the  wind  among  the  people  of  Thibet  and  of  Tartary. 
All  these  men  were,  or  were  supposed  to  be,  enforced 
celibates.  Cut  off  from  the  joys  and  responsibilities  of 
domestic  life,  and  with  much  unoccupied  time,  the  moral 
results  were  such  as  might  have  been  expected.  The 
case  does  not  rest  merely  on  the  testimony  of  enemies. 
Existing  records  of  the  spiritual  courts  unfortunately 
leave  no  doubt  as  to  the  facts,  which  reacted  upon  the 
laity ;  as  was  inevitable.  The  general  tone  of  public 
morals  was  low  and  coarse,  to  an  extent  that  now  seems 
revolting.  Nor  was  there  a  screen  of  hypocritical  decency. 
The  censures  of  the  spiritual  courts  were  inadequate  and 
ridiculous.  Thus  the  evil  grew  and  spread.  Clerical 
jealousy  resisted  the  intrusion  of  the  secular  arm  in  order 


A.D.  1377-1390.]       WILLIAM  OCCAM.  395 

to  check  it.  Reformers  within  the  Church  were  power- 
less.    Nothing  short  of  a  heroic  remedy  could  avail. 

Protests  against  this  state  of  things  were  made  long 
before  the  Protestants  appeared.  What  are  called  the 
Dark  Ages  were  not  without  gleams  and  rays  of  light. 
In  England,  as  in  France,  in  Bavaria,  in  Switzerland, 
and  other  countries,  brave,  pure  souls  were  found  at 
intervals  to  keep  alive  the  torch  of  truth  and  hand  it  on 
for  the  illumination  of  future  ages.  Among  the  early 
Schoolmen,  with  all  their  fanciful  conjectures  and  their 
verbal  hair-splitting,  some  rose  superior  to  metaphysical 
theories  and  speculations,  and  proved  themselves  to  be 
men  having  understanding  of  the  times.  Roger  Bacon, 
and  other  distinguished  Franciscans,  have  been  men- 
tioned. Some  twenty  years  before  he  died,  another 
illustrious  member  of  the  same  Order  appeared.  William 
of  Ockham,  or  Occam,  was  born  in  1270,  at  the  village 
of  that  name,  in  Surrey.  His  great  abilities  induced  the 
Franciscans  to  persuade  him,  while  yet  a  boy,  to  join 
their  ranks.  He  studied  at  Merton  College,  Oxford,  and 
then  in  the  University  of  Paris,  where  he  was  the 
favourite  pupil  of  John  Duns  Scotus  (i  265-1 308),  the 
Subtle  Doctor,  whose  renown  and  influence  he  speedily 
rivalled,  and  eventually  became  a  chief  opponent  of  his 
system  of  philosophy,  in  the  revived  disputes  between 
the  Realists  and  the  Nominalists.  Occam  was  the  con- 
temporary and  friend  of  John  Marsiglio  of  Padua  ;  also 
a  teacher  in  that  University ;  whose  lectures  and  writings 
embody  the  two  great  ideas  of  the  spiritual  and  political 
struggle  then  impending,  namely,  the  sul^stitution  of  a 
ministry  for  a  priesthood  in  the  Christian  Church,  and 
the  recognition  of  popular  government  as  the  source  of 
sovereign  power  in  the  State.  Duns  was  a  corruption  of 
Don,  an  abbreviation  of  Dominus,  applied  to  the  Minorite 
Friars,  and  was  used  for  the  sake  of  euphony.  R.  L. 
Poole  has  summarized  the  arguments  of  Marsiglio  in  his 
'  Wycliffe  and  Movements  for  Reform,'  tracing  the 
descent  of  political  ideas  through  Marsiglio  and  Occam 
to  Wycliffe. 

Without  possessing  original  research  or  daring  specu- 
lation, Occam  had  the  faculty,  beyond  all  other  teachers 
of   his    day,    of    seizing    upon    important    principles   and 


396  MORNING  STAR  OF  RE  FORMA  TION.  [chap.  xxv. 

showint;  their  immediate  practical  use.  He  was  the 
great  English  Schoolman  of  that  age  ;  though  much  of 
his  active  life  was  spent  in  France  and  Bavaria.  His 
influence  was  perpetuated  in  John  Wycliffe  and  in  John 
Huss.  As  the  unrivalled  representative  of  English 
theology  and  philosophy,  he  is  styled  Doctor  Singularis 
et  Invincibilis  by  the  writers  of  his  own  time,  in  accord- 
ance with  a  peculiar  and  somewhat  pedantic  fashion. 
His  nationality  and  patriotism  appear  in  his  writings. 
Abstract  dialectics  could  not  obscure  his  clear  vision.  His 
sturdy  self-dependence  and  intense  love  of  freedom  made 
him  a  power  in  both  Church  and  State.  In  the  long- 
continued  and  tenacious  dispute  between  Rome  and  the 
monarchs  of  Europe,  as  to  the  complete  subordination  of 
the  civil  authority  to  the  ecclesiastical,  Occam  challenged 
the  political  supremacy  of  the  Head  of  the  Church  ; 
declaring  that  he  had  rule  in  spiritual  matters  only.  He 
established  this  from  Scripture,  from  theology,  and  from 
common  sense,  in  a  short  tractate  remarkable  for  clear 
and  terse  reasoning,  and  which  has  been  a  storehouse  for 
later  disputants  against  ecclesiastical  supremacy.  Wycliffe 
not  only  adopted  the  fundamental  thought  in  his  '  Tria- 
logus,'  but  he  borrowed  much  of  the  argument.  He  went 
further  than  Occam,  in  asserting  the  power  of  the  State 
to  guide,  control,  and  regulate  the  Church  within  its  own 
domain.  Occam  and  other  forerunners  of  the  Reforma- 
tion prepared  the  way  for  destroying  what  was  false, 
rather  than  by  clearly  announcing  new  truths.  They 
were  pioneers  of  a  movement  which  they  were  not  to 
see,  arxi  the  unconscious  heralds  of  principles  which 
they  never  would  have  accepted. 

The  chief  points  of  contact  between  Occam  and  the 
Reformers  of  the  sixteenth  century  are  his  doctrine  of 
philosophical  scepticism  in  relation  to  the  Scholastic 
theology ;  his  strenuous  opposition  to  the  temporal 
power  of  the  Pope  ;  his  exposure  of  the  luxury  and  evil 
lives  of  the  clergy  ;  his  assertion  that  neither  Pope  nor 
Council  could  bind  a  man's  conscience  and  compel  him 
to  do  an  unlawful  act ;  and  his  theory  of  the  Eucharist, 
which  in  all  essential  points  was  the  same  as  Luther's. 
That  great  German  Reformer,  according  to  Melanchthon, 
studied  the  writings  of  Occam  and  his  disciples  with  such 


A.D.  1 377- 1 390.]  WYCLIFFE.  2)97 

care  that  he  could  repeat  from  memory  whole  passages. 
The  influence  upon  Luther  is  so  marked  as  to  be  trace- 
able in  many  peculiar  expressions.  Occam  was  also  a 
distinguished  follower  of  Grosseteste,  Bishop  of  Lincoln, 
in  his  resistance  to  Papal  absolutism.  He  was  contempo- 
rary with  Thomas  Bradvvardine,  the  Profound  Doctor. 
The  principles  that  lay  at  the  basis  of  the  teachings  of 
these  three  great  thinkers,  were  further  developed  by 
Wycliffe,  and  found  their  ultimate  fruition  at  the  Re- 
formation. In  their  popular  form  they  are  set  forth  in 
the  '  Vision  of  Piers  Ploughman.' 

Against  the  notorious  evils  which  culminated  in  the 
second  half  of  the  fourteenth  century,  John  de  Wycliffe, 
commonly  called,  like  Pierre  Waldo  (11 20-1 170),  the 
Morning  Star  of  the  Reformation,  was  moved  to  deliver 
an  emphatic  and  indignant  protest.  Of  his  personality 
and  early  life  not  much  is  known,  notwithstanding  Dr. 
Robert  Vaughan's  painstaking  monograph,  and  the  re- 
searches of  Lechler,  Buddensieg,  and  Professor  Shirley, 
with  the  invaluable  publications  of  the  Wycliffe  Society. 
He  is  described  as  of  a  spare,  frail,  emaciated  frame,  of 
a  quick  temper,  and  most  innocent  conversation.  His 
grand  and  solitary  figure  appears  in  shadow  behind  the 
gorgeous  .pageantry  of  Edward  the  Third's  reign.  His 
own  age  furnished  no  friendly  biographer.  Knighton  of 
Leicester  and  Walsingham  of  St.  Alban's  depict  him  as 
a  blasphemer.  Netter  of  Saffron  Walden  rendered  un- 
witting but  invaluable  service  by  collecting  the  chief 
Wycliffian  doctrines  under  the  title  of  'Fasciculi  Zizani- 
orum,'  or,  '  Bundles  of  Tares.'  Most  of  the  Chroniclers 
denounce  him  as  an  arch-heretic  and  an  emissary  of 
Satan.  He  suffered  long  from  the  foul  breath  of  calumny. 
In  after  years,  when  he  was  understood  and  appreciated, 
loving  traditions  were  handed  down,  but  their  origin 
cannot  be  traced,  and  they  are  manifestly  embellished, 
if  not  apocryphal.  The  scanty  information  possessed 
comes  from  the  antiquarian  researches  of  the  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  centuries ;  Leland  being  one  of  the 
earliest.  Even  the  famous  story  of  his  reply  to  the 
Friars  during  what  was  thought  to  be  a  fatal  illness,  and 
the  dramatic  incident  which  represents  him  standing 
majestically   before   the  prelates  and  doctors  at  Oxford, 


398  MORNING  STAR  OF  REFORMATION,  [chap.  xxv. 

like  lAithcr  a  century  and  a  half  later  at  Worms,  have 
no  historical  warrant.  Jiorn  probably  in  1324,  near  to 
Richmond,  in  Yorkshire,  he  received  in  his  youth,  all  the 
educational  advantages  that  Oxford  could  furnish.  He 
first  appears  publicly  in  1 361,  as  a  controversial  preacher 
and  as  the  Warden  or  Master  of  Balliol.  Twenty  years 
of  study  had  trained  his  faculties,  and  made  him  pro- 
ficient in  the  metaphysics  of  the  time.  He  was  acknow- 
ledged to  be  a  consummate  master  in  the  dialectics  of  the 
schools  ;  ranking  with  Duns  Scotus,  Occam,  and  Brad- 
wardine  in  the  quaternion  of  great  Schoolmen  of  that 
age.  A  keen  disputant,  and  the  unsparing  assailant  of 
abuses,  he  was  at  the  same  time  a  popular  pamphleteer. 
His  Latin  style  is  abstruse,  argumentative,  and  severe ; 
but  his  English  is  pungent,  emphatic,  and  sometimes 
vehement  ;  with  short,  sententious  phrases  couched  in 
homely,  idiomatic  language,  like  that  used  by  the  artisan 
and  ploughman  of  the  day,  for  whom  he  wrote.  His 
writings  abound  in  exquisite  pathos,  in  delicate  but  keen 
irony,  and  in  manly  passion. 

His  fearless  and  unsparing  attacks  upon  the  Friars 
secured  for  him  an  immediate  hearing.  He  struck 
boldly  at  the  root  of  the  evil ;  as  his  contemporary, 
Richard  Fitzralph,  Archbishop  of  Armagh,  had  already 
done,  for  which  he  was  cited  to  Avignon  in  1357. 
Wycliffe  anticipated  Milton's  scornful  description  in 
'  Paradise  Lost,'  of  "  Eremites  and  Friars,  white,  black, 
and  grey,  with  all  their  trumpery."  He  branded  the 
higher  members  of  the  two  Mendicant  Orders  as  hypo- 
crites, who,  while  ostentatiously  professing  poverty,  lived 
in  stately  houses,  rode  on  noble  horses,  and  enjoyed  all 
the  luxury  and  displayed  all  the  pride  of  wealth.  He 
denounced  the  humbler  Friars  as  common  able-bodied 
beggars,  who  ought  not  to  be  permitted  to  infest  the 
land.  In  his  '  Treatise  against  Begging  Friars,'  he 
presents  a  terrible  indictment.  His  root-and-branch 
method  of  treating  the  subject  enlisted  popular  sym- 
pathy. The  details  given  were  patent  to  all.  None 
pould  escape  the  conclusion  that  the  evils  described  were 
a  necessary  consequence  of  the  system.  The  two  Orders 
of  Friars  had  come  into  being  as  a  protest  against  the 
pride,    luxury,    and    corruption    of    the    older    monastic 


A.D.  1377-1390]  THE  FRIARS.  399 

foundations ;  but  they  speedily  forgot  or  violated  their 
rules  of  poverty.  Fuller  thus  describes  the  Friars  :  — 
"  These  vultures  had  the  quickest  sight  and  scent  about 
corpses  ;  flocking  fastest  to  men  of  fashion  when  lying  on 
their  deathbeds,  whose  last  confessions  were  more  profit- 
able to  the  Friars  than  half  the  glebe  land  to  the  priest 
of  the  parish."  In  various  ways  they  contrived  to  become 
actual  owners  of  enormous  property.  Cloisters,  and 
churches  of  the  Mendicants  arose  all  over  the  land,  as  in 
other  parts  of  Europe,  vying  in  the  elaborate  costliness 
of  their  architecture  and  appointments  with  the  noblest 
abbeys. 

Every  country  and  age  has  its  Aristophanes,  whose 
writings  remain,  though  the  author  may  be  forgotten  or 
nameless.  Contemporaneous  satirical  poems,  of  which 
many  are  extant,  abound  in  complaints  of  clerical  cor- 
rui)tion.  Charges  of  simony  are  continually  met  with. 
The  bishops  and  other  dignitaries  were  said  to  be  chiefly 
influenced  by  the  love  of  money  and  by  self-indulgence. 
Monks  and  Friars  were  declared  to  be  remarkable  only 
for  worldliness,  avarice  and  sensuality,  and  their  mag- 
nificent houses  as  no  better  than  dens  of  wolves.  The 
latter  still  called  themselves  Mendicants,  yet  they  wore 
rich  clothing  under  the  pretence  of  protecting  themselves 
from  the  inclemency  of  the  weather.  They  sold  Masses 
and  prayers  to  all  who  could  pay ;  caring  little  whether 
the  purchasers  were  worthy.  They  were  alleged  to  be 
guilty  of  many  dark  crimes,  of  which,  says  one  of  the 
satirists,  "  I  will  not  here  speak ;  but  I  say,  Farewell  to 
you,  Friars  !  Whosoever  throws  his  net  among  you  is 
sure  to  catch  reprobates."  In  the  Prologue  to  the 
'  Canterbury  Tales ' — to  which  further  reference  is  made 
in  the  next  chapter — Chaucer  describes,  among  other 
persons,  a  Monk  and  a  Friar,  who  may  be  regarded  as 
typical.  The  former  was  "a  manly  man,"  loving  field 
sports ;  a  good  rider,  with  "  store  of  dainty  horses ; "  not 
addicted  to  strict  monastic  rules  or  to  hard  study ;  but 
taking  life  easily,  dressing  well  and  in  the  fashion ;  not 
forgetting  "a  love  knot."  The  Friar  is  represented  as 
"wanton  and  merry,"  "well-beloved  and  familiar."  He 
could  both  sing  and  play,  and  was  acquainted  with  the 


400  MORNING  STAR  OF  REFORM  A  TION.  [chap.  xxv. 

best  taverns  in  every  town  between  London  and  Canter- 
bury : — 

"  Somewhat  he  lipsede,  for  wantounesse, 
To  make  his  EngHssch  swete  upon  his  tunge." 

Both  are  spoken  of  as  telling  tales  of  an  exceedingly 
gross  character,  and  ready  to  join  with  zest  in  all  the  low 
and  debasing  employments  of  the  vulgar.  Chaucer  also 
delineates  the  Sumpnour  and  the  Pardoner;  two  para- 
sites of  the  system  then  prevailing.  The  first  was  the 
officer  employed  to  summon  delinquents.  He  was  the 
sleuth  hound  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Courts,  combining 
an  extortioner's  greed  with  a  gossip-monger's  love  of 
scandal,  and  he  made  a  hateful  living  by  fees  and  penal- 
ties. His  business  was  to  scent  out  the  secret  sins  of  the 
neighbourhood,  and  to  make  practice  for  those  abomin- 
able, inquisitorial,  and  tyrannical  courts,  if  he  failed  to 
extract  private  compositions  from  accused  or  suspected 
persons.  The  second  was  the  retailer  of  Indulgences. 
The  bold  exactions'  of  which  the  Sumpnour  was  the 
legalized  instrument,  and  the  impudent  frauds  imposed 
upon  the  people  by  the  Pardoner,  who  sold  forgiveness 
and  what  was  construed  into  immunity  to  sin,  for  a 
consideration,  rendered  them  generally  hated,  where 
they  were  not  despised.  The  graphic  picture  drawn  by 
Chaucer  justifies  the  severity  with  which  Wycliffe  de- 
nounced these  men.  He  insisted  upon  their  suppression 
as  being  necessary,  if  people  were  to  be  protected  against 
fraud  and  hypocrisy.  English  literature  abounds  with 
similar  representations,  down  to  the  time  of  Dryden  and 
his  play  of  'The  Spanish  Friar';  intended  as  a  type  of 
a  large  class. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  conclude  that  all  Monks  and 
Friars  were  worldly,  idle,  and  sensual.  In  every  age, 
men  have  been  found  superior  to  the  worst  systems. 
Neither  is  it  just  to  represent  what  some  vaguely  rever- 
ence under  the  diaphanous  phrase  of  Ages  of  Faith,  as 
a  lost  Paradise,  whose  peace  and  beauty  can  never  be 
regained.  Former  times  appear  entrancing  because 
viewed  through  the  dim  haze  of  centuries.  Allowing 
for  instances  of  goodness,  purity,  and  heroism,  universal 
and  indisputable  testimony  proves  that  the  tendency  of 


A.D.  1377-1390.]  SAINTLY  CHARACTER  RARE.       401 

the  system  was  towards  debasement  and  corruption. 
Residence  in  a  religious  liouse,  or  wearing  the  garb  of 
Mendicants,  by  no  means  ensured  exemption  from 
intrigue,  ambition,  pride,  and  the  indulgence  of  baser 
passions.  The  cowl  does  not  make  the  monk.  Cathedral 
chapters  and  the  common  rooms  of  colleges  are  not 
distinguished  for  serene  unselfishness.  It  is  unreasonable 
to  expect  too  much  from  the  average  man.  The  saintly 
character  is  as  rare  as  the  bloom  of  the  aloe.  There 
were,  however,  exceptions  to  what  must  be  regarded, 
on  overwhelming  evidence,  as  widespread  degeneracy. 
Some  noble  instances  occur  among  the  clergy  of 
superiority  to  prevalent  ignorance  and  corruption. 
Chaucer  has  drawn  a  beautiful  portrait  of  one  of  these 
in  the  Persoun,  or  parson  ;  for  which  Wycliffe  himself 
may  have  been  the  original.  It  might  also  have 
served  for  the  prototype  of  Fielding's  Parson  Adams, 
or  Goldsmith's  Village  Preacher,  or  Cowper's,  in  '  The 
Task  ' ;  and  it  found  actual  and  beautiful  realizations  in  the 
sixteenth  century  in  Bernard  Gilpin,  the  Apostle  of  the 
North,  and  in  the  next  age  in  the  saintly  George 
Herbert  and  in  Fletcher  of  Madeley. 

Yet,  after  making  full  allowance,  as  demanded  by 
justice  and  charity,  the  general  condition  of  ecclesiastical 
affairs  at  this  time  presents  a  melancholy  spectacle. 
Worship  had  sunk  to  a  performance.  Most  of  the 
preachers  uttered  by  rote  what  they  neither  understood 
nor  believed.  Sermons  were  made  up  of  lying  legends, 
of  pretended  miracles,  of  ghostly  stories,  and  of  realistic 
and  harrowing  descriptions  of  Purgatory  and  Hell.  The 
pulpit  had  lost  its  power.  The  marvellous  influence 
gained  by  the  early  Friars,  through  their  preaching 
talent  and  their  self-sacrificing  labours  for  humanity, 
had  died  away.  The  golden  age  of  the  few  eminent 
Schoolmen  was  a  thing  of  the  Past.  Scholastic  divinity 
degenerated  into  petty  trifling  and  feeble  dogmatism, 
which  has  made  much  of  the  so-called  theology  and 
philosophy  of  the  Middle  Ages  a  by-word  of  reproach. 
The  process  went  on  from  bad  to  worse,  until  Erasmus 
overwhelmed  it  with  his  caustic  satire,  early  in  the  six- 
teenth century.  Time  was  wasted,  by  men  claiming  to 
be  erudite,  in  vain  and  idle  conjectures  on  metaphysical 
c8 


403  MORNING  STAR  OF  REFORM  A  TION  [chap.  xxv. 

subtleties  ;  as  the  question  solemnly  discussed  by 
Alexander  Hales,  whether  a  mouse  nibbling  a  consecrated 
wafer  thereby  eats  the  body  of  Christ ;  or  as  represented 
by  the  popular  tale  that  one  of  the  theses  of  the  School- 
men was,  "  How  many  angels  can  stand  upon  the  point 
of  a  Tieedle  without  crowding  ? "'  On  this  speculative 
ireadmill  whole  lives  were  spent ;  with  the  sole  result  of 
filling  posterity  with  amazement  at  the  stupendous  waste 
of  power  for  such  barren  results.  It  was  what  Milton, 
describing  the  abyss,  calls  the  "  palpable  obscure," 
through  which  it  is  hard  to  find  the  '-uncouth  way"; 
or  what  Cowper  describes  as  "  dropping  buckets  into 
empty  wells,  and  growing  old  in  drawing  nothing  up." 
A  deserved  oblivion  has  long  since  befallen  most  of  the 
Scholastic  commentaries  and  treatises.  Some  of  their 
fanciful  theories  were  bold  and  impious ;  others  were 
trifling  and  contemptible  ;  not  a  few  were  obscene  ;  and 
all  were  practically  useless.  The  Scholasticism  of  the 
V  Middle  Ages  was  light  without  heat :  just  as  most  of 
the  Mystics  had  heat  without  light. 

The  recorded  contents  of  some  monastic  libraries  show 
how  restricted  was  the  range  of  study.  The  renowned 
monastery  of  Bee,  where  Lanfranc  and  Anselm  had  been 
reared,  contained  only  fifty  volumes.  The  Library  of 
Christ  Church,  in  the  archiepiscopal  city  of  Canterbury, 
had  but  three  times  that  number ;  among  which  the 
solitary  work  in  Greek  was  a  grammar.  This  state  of 
literary  denudation  continued  for  several  centuries. 
Richard  of  Bury  (1281-1345),  Bishop  of  Durham,  and 
Chancellor  under  Edward  HL^  not  only  celebrated  in  his 
'  Philobiblon '  his  own  love  of  books,  but  shows  the 
degeneracy  of  the  clergy  in  learning,  and  especially  the 
crass  ignorance  of  the  Friars.  He  spared  no  expense  or 
trouble  in  forming  a  library,  larger  than  any  private  indi- 
vidual before  possessed.  He  gave  the  Abbot  of  St.  Alban's 
fifty  pounds'  weight  of  silver  for  between  thirty  and  forty 
volumes.  Those  who  first  attempted  to  open  up  the 
stores  of  ancient  learning,  experienced  almost  insuperable 
dilficulties  from  the  scarcity  of  manuscripts,  and  from 
the  neglected  condition  in  which  many  of  them  were 
found,  owing  to  the  ignorance  and  supineness  of  those 
to   whom    the    guardianship    was    entrusted.     Much    de- 


A.D.  1377-1390.]  MONASTIC  LIBRARIES.  403 

pended  upon  the  personal  character  and  attainments  of 
the  abbot,  whether  the  monastic  library  was  kept  in 
order,  and  replenished  by  new  purchases  or  by  the 
industry  of  gifted  brethren  in  the  Scriptorium.  The 
account  books  of  the  rich  Bolton  Abbey  show  that  only 
three  books  were  purchased  during  forty  years  after  the 
commencement  of  the  fourteenth  century.  This  is  but 
a  specimen  of  the  carelessness,  ignorance,  and  sensual 
jollity  which  prevailed,  to  the  exclusion  alike  of  learning 
and  piety.  It  is  also  to  be  regretted  that  priceless 
classical  treasures  were  frequently  erased,  as  Petrarch 
(1304-1374)  lamented  at  this  very  time,  in  order  that 
the  vellum  and  parchment  might  be  used  for  ridiculous 
legends,  impossible  miracles,  historical  fables,  crude 
speculations  and  all  the  senseless  gossip  that  marked 
the  worst  days  of  Monasticism.  The  most  popular 
work  of  the  time  was  the  '  Polychronicon,'  or  Universal 
History  of  Ranulph  Higden,  a  Chester  Benedictine 
(d.  1364),  who  gives,  with  much  information,  an  extra- 
ordinary farrago  of  delusions  and  myths. 

Former  legislative  attempts  to  curb  spiritual  power 
and  wealth  had  proved  ineffectual.  Claims  more  and 
more  pretentious  were  set  up  by  the  clergy.  Their 
constant  aim  was  to  evade  or  weaken  the  force  of  succes- 
sive enactments  framed  in  the  interest  of  the  laity.  As 
if  to  add  fuel  to  the  national  indignation.  Pope  Urban  V. 
demanded,  in  1365,  payment  of  thirty-three  years'  arrears 
ot  a  tribute  of  one  thousand  marks — equivalent  to  about 
one-third  of  a  million  of  modern  money — alleged  to  be 
due  since  King  John  ceded  his  crown  to  the  Pope  as 
feudal  superior.  Wycliffe  was  one  of  the  first  to  enter 
the  controversial  lists  in  opposition.  He  was  certainly 
the  ablest  disputant.  Here  was  an  Oxford  scholar,  in 
holy  orders,  a  keen  logician  and  metaphysician,  who 
warmly  espoused  the  national  as  against  the  Papal  side ; 
and  was  capable  of  defending  his  position  with  all  the 
resources  of  a  clear,  powerful,  and  trained  intellect.  His 
earliest  known  treatise  is  devoted  to  this  subject.  He 
strenuously  maintained  the  royal  supremacy.  Although 
no  certain  proof  exists  of  the  fact,  he  was  probably 
brought    at    this    time    and    by    its    means    into    personal 


404  MORNING  STAR  OF  REFORM  A  TION.  [chap.  xxv. 

contact  with  the  Court,  and  especially  with  John  of 
Gaunt,  Uuke  of  Lancaster.  The  application  to  matters 
ecclesiastical  of  Wycliffe's  famous  argument,  known  by 
the  quaint  phrase  of  "  Dominion  founded  in  Grace," 
must  have  been  peculiarly  acceptable.  It  was  an 
idealized  form  of  the  feudal  theory  of  lordship,  based 
ui)<)n  reciprocity  of  service.  In  modern  phraseology, 
it  is  the  vindication  of  a  national  institution  by  its  useful 
results ;  meaning  thereby,  that  authority  is  only  based 
on  character  and  merit,  and  maintaining  the  absolute 
supremacy  and  control  of  the  State.  In  the  theological 
or  metaphysical  meaning,  it  was  the  doctrine  taught  by 
Augustine,  but  its  social  aspect  was  obvious. 

Like  the  fabled  arrow  of  Acestes,  the  swift  thought  of 
Wycliffe  kindled  as  it  flew.  Laymen  regarded  with 
consternation  the  grasping  and  worldly  policy  of  the 
Popes,  the  accumulating  treasures  and  power  of  the 
Church,  and  especially  the  passing  of  revenues  into 
foreign  hands ;  however  much  they  may  have  differed 
from,  or  failed  to  sympathize  with  Wycliffe  in  his  lofty 
spiritual  aims.  When  the  Papal  demand  was  submitted 
to  Parliament  it  was  disdainfully  scouted.  The  temper 
of  the  nation  was  aroused.  Even  the  prelates  joined  in 
declaring  that  the  act  of  John  was  invalid.  "  Neither  he 
nor  any  King  could  put  himself,  his  Kingdom,  nor  his 
people  under  subjection,  save  with  their  accord  or 
consent;"  said  the  representatives  of  the  nation.  It 
was  determined  that  in  the  event  of  this  monstrous  claim 
being  enforced,  resistance  should  be  made  to  the  utmost. 
Such  a  resolute  attitude  settled  the  question.  The 
demand  was  not  formally  withdrawn ;  neither  was  it 
ever  renewed.  The  effect  upon  the  nation  was  electrical. 
No  subsequent  Pontiff  presumed  to  make  a  similar  pre- 
tension to  suzerainty  over  England. 

The  feeling  was  intensified  by  the  national  antipathy 
of  Englishmen  to  the  Papal  Court  being  fixed  at 
Avignon,  in  Provence.  Owing  to  predominant  French 
influence,  Clement  V.  and  six  of  his  successors  were 
compelled  to  reside  there  from  1309  to  1377;  a  period 
known  as  the  Seventy  Years'  Captivity.  It  was  sus- 
pected, and  probably  with  reason,  that  the  vast  sums 
extorted  from  this  country  for  ecclesiastical  dues  went  in 


A.D.  1377-1390.]   PAPAL  COLLECTORS.  405 

no  small  measure  to  foment  the  war  then  being  waged 
against  herself  by  France.  This  feeling  applied  also  to 
the  growing  avarice  of  Rome  with  regard  to  Firstfruits. 
Small  voluntary  gifts  in  ancient  times  had  been  trans- 
muted into  a  claim  as  of  right  to  the  first  year's  income 
ot  benefices  ;  which,  exacted  from  the  whole  of  Christen- 
dom, yielded  an  enormous  sum.  Besides  this,  an  old 
custom,  so  often  protested  against,  was  continued,  and 
many  of  the  richest  livings  and  higher  clerical  offices 
were  appropriated  to  foreign  nominees— chiefly  Italian 
cardinals  and  bishops — who  drew  the  revenues  while 
allowing  a  slender  pittance  to  inferiors  who  did  the 
work.  Between  1317  and  1334,  eighteen  bishoprics  in 
England  were  thus  reserved.  Rome  was  in  constant 
need  of  money,  and  it  had  to  be  obtained  by  fair  means 
or  foul.  A  system  of  spiritual  barter  and  huckstering 
was  gradually  established.  In  the  "sinful  city  of 
Avignon,"  as  it  was  stigmatized  by  the  Good  Parliament 
of  1376,  there  lived  and  throve  a  set  of  professional 
brokers  who  purchased  foreign  benefices  and  let  them 
out  to  farm  on  behalf  of  absentee  holders.  To  carry  on 
all  this  lucrative  traffic  in  ecclesiastical  property,  and  to 
see  that  Peter's  Pence  and  other  dues  were  regularly 
paid,  the  usage,  already  referred  to,  was  continued,  of 
locating  Papal  officers,  who  also  served  the  functions  of 
political  intriguers  and  spies.  They  were  suspected  and 
disliked,  and  sometimes  openly  attacked  and  maltreated. 
Wycliffe  sets  forth  their  rapacious  spirit  and  conduct  in 
his  'Speculum  de  Antichristo ' ;  which  was  widely  cir- 
culated and  warmly  welcomed. 

It  was  no  fancied  danger  that  threatened  the  country. 
These  were  not  new  complaints.  They  had  been  made 
in  some  form,  and  with  varying  degrees  of  intensity,  for 
generations  ;  but  they  had  become  unbearable.  A  large 
portion  of  the  national  wealth,  boldly  said  in  one  of  the 
petitions  from  the  Commons  to  amount  to  twenty 
thousand  marks  annually,  was  being  diverted  abroad  for 
the  benefit  of  foreigners,  who  did  not  scruple  to  employ 
their  influence  against  the  country  whence  their  vast 
wealth  was  derived.  Added  to  all  this,  the  Religious 
Orders,  freed  from  episcopal  supervision,  regarded  them- 
selves   as    belonging   to  a    great    corporation,    having    a 


4o6  MORNING  STAR  OF  RE  FORMA  TION.  [chap.  xxv. 

foreign  head,  and  with  interests  and  duties  distinct  from 
and  often  alien  to  those  of  the  nation.  The  behests  of 
the  Pope  were  regarded  as  more  binding  than  legislative 
measures.  An  imperium  in  imperio  had  been  created  ; 
inimical  to  the  well-being  of  society.  By  means  of  the 
confessional,  of  extreme  unction,  of  the  doctrine  of 
Purgatory,  and  of  sacerdotalism,  a  spiritual  Reign  of 
Terror  prevailed.  Men  were  constrained  to  enrich  an 
ecclesiastical  oligarchy,  to  the  detriment  of  their  own 
families,  and  to  the  injury  of  the  Commonwealth. 
Clerical  rapacity  needed  to  be  curbed,  and  clerical  power 
kept  within  just  limits,  or  the  wealth  of  the  country 
would  have  been  drained  away.  Through  its  officials, 
spread  over  every  district,  Rome  could  interfere  not  only 
with  what  it  chose  to  call  Church  property,  but  with 
that  of  the  laity.  The  weak  had  no  security,  and  the 
strong  often  found  their  strength  insufficient  to  protect 
them  against  a  scheme  of  systematic  plundering.  Pro- 
ceedings of  this  nature  became  so  shameless,  that  even 
the  Papal  Court,  when  the  enormities  of  its  doings  were 
laid  bare,  felt  obliged  to  admit  that  the  case  against  it 
could  not  be  met ;  but  this  had  respect  only  to  certain 
things  done ;  not  at  all  to  the  principle  involved.  The 
assumed  authority  for  interfering  with  the  rights  of  the 
Crown  and  of  the  patrons  of  Uvings  was  not  given  up. 

Authoritative  entries  on  the  Rolls  of  Parliament  show 
the  pressing  nature  of  the  grievance.  Legislative  action 
was  taken  as  early  as  1350,  by  the  famous  Statute  of 
Provisors  of  Benefices  ;  the  avowal  of  a  stern  national 
resolve  not  to  yield  to  the  Pope's  usurpation  of  patronage. 
It  recites  in  vigorous  language  the  evils  and  abuses  that 
had  arisen,  and  former  attempts  to  remedy  them  ;  notably 
the  legislation  of  1 301,  as  mentioned  in  the  seventeenth 
Chapter.  As  these  measures  had  proved  ineffectual,  it 
was  now  enacted  that  the  elections  of  Bishops  and  other 
dignitaries  should  be  free,  as  of  old,  of  any  foreign 
interference  ;  that  the  King,  and  all  other  persons  witliin 
the  realm  having  the  presentation  of  spiritual  offices, 
should  exercise  their  rights  unimpeded  ;  that  nominees 
of  the  Pope  who  disturbed  the  lawful  occupants  should 
be  impeached  and  imprisoned  until  satisfaction  was  made, 
besides  giving  sureties  not  to  repeat  the  offence  and  not 


A.D.  1377-1390.]  STATUTE  OF  PR^MUNIRE.  407 

to  sue  out  any  further  process  at  Rome  or  elsewhere. 
The  meaning  of  this  Statute  was  that  the  King  and  the 
Padiament  resolved  to  be  supreme  in  the  land  over 
matters  ecclesiastical  as  well  as  temporal.  The  real 
point  at  issue  was  whether  the  Pope  should  have  the 
power  of  appointing  so  large  a  proportion  of  the  House 
of  Lords  as  the  Bishops  and  Abbots  formed.  In  the 
following  year  a  more  decided  step  was  taken  by  enacting 
that  any  one  should  be  outlawed  who  purchased  abbacies 
and  priories  ;  with  those  acting  in  the  matter  of  obtain- 
ing such  offices.  The  terrible  penalties  of  Praemunire 
were  decreed  in  1353  against  all  who  sued  in  foreign 
courts  for  matters  cognizable  in  the  Royal  Courts.  A 
blow  was  aimed  at  the  jurisdiction  arrogated  by  Rome , 
for  the  punishment  was  confiscation  of  all  property,  and 
outlawry.  Further,  in  1364,  a  Statute  against  Appeals 
to  and  Citations  from  Rome,  inflicted  for  such  acts  the 
same  punishment  as  was  provided  by  the  Statute  of  1350; 
with  the  addition  that  suspected  persons,  failing  to  appear 
when  charged,  and  after  further  warning  for  two  months, 
were  to  be  outlawed,  and  all  their  goods  forfeited. 

Even  this  severe  measure  failed.  Rome  would  not 
relinquish  her  hold  upon  wealthy  foreign  benefices  until 
absolutely  compelled,  nor  would  she  abate  one  iota  of 
her  arrogant  pretensions.  Accordingly,  in  1390,  the 
famous  Statute  of  Provisors  was  re-enacted,  with  still 
heavier  penalties,  including  forfeiture  of  all  property  and 
"  pain  of  life  and  member."  The  two  Archbishops, 
acting  under  orders  from  Rome,  protested  against  the 
measure,  as  tending  to  the  restriction  of  Apostolic  power 
and  the  subversion  of  ecclesiastical  liberty.  Their 
protest  was  unheeded.  Two  years  later,  the  Statute  of 
Praemunire  was  enacted  in  its  ultimate  and  severest 
form :— ^"  If  any  purchase  or  pursue  in  the  Court  of 
Rome,  or  elsewhere,  translations,  processes,  sentences 
of  excommunication,  bulls,  instruments,  or  any  other 
things  whatsoever,  which  touch  the  King,  his  crown, 
and  realm,  or  bring  or  receive  such  things,  they  shall  be 
put  out  of  the  King's  protection,  and  their  lands  and 
tenements,  goods  and  chattels,  shall  be  forfeited  to  him." 
Although  subsequently  evaded  at  times,  or  suspended  in 
its  operation,  like  the  Statute  of  Mortmain,  this  measure 


4o8  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE,  [chap.  xxvi. 

effectually  accomplished  its  intended  object.  In  the 
strong  hands  of  Henry  VIII.  it  became  a  resistless  lever 
and  fulcrum  for  the  overthrow  of  Papal  supremacy. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

THE   ENGLISH    LANGUAGE. 
A.D.   1374-1399- 

The  facts  just  recited  show  the  determination  of  Parlia- 
ment to  withstand  the  avarice  and  meddling  of  Rome, 
and  the  strenuous  attempts  of  the  latter  not  to  surrender 
the  wealth  and  influence  acquired  by  appeals  to  her 
supreme  authority.  Appeals  had  multiplied  under  the 
elastic  provisions  of  the  Canon  Law,  and  were  made  to 
embrace  almost  every  question,  however  trifling,  that 
arose  in  domestic  life,  in  business,  and  in  politics,  as 
well  as  in  religious  concerns.  The  delay  in  obtaining 
decisions  was  proverbial,  and  the  fees  were  ruinous. 
Commissioners  were  appointed  to  confer  with  the  Papal 
authorities,  so  as  to  establish  a  Concordat,  and  put  an 
end  to  these  perennial  disputes.  Wycliffe  served  on 
such  an  embassy  in  1374,  when  he  was  sent  to  Bruges 
with  John  of  Gaunt,  Duke  of  Lancaster,  the  Earl  of 
Salisbury,  and  others,  to  meet  the  Legates.  The  usual 
temporizing  policy  was  adopted  during  a  series  of  dis- 
cussions spread  over  fifteen  months ;  but  no  effectual 
remedy  was  devised.  The  English  Legislature  was 
forced  to  deal  with  the  matter ;  as  narrated  in  the  last 
Chapter.  What  Wycliffe  saw  and  heard  produced  a 
deep  impression  on  his  mind  ;  as  was  the  case  afterwards 
with  Luther's  famous  visit  to  Rome.  Ere  long,  he  was 
found  exposing  spiritual  wickedness  in  high  places.  He 
continued  to  be  the  brave  and  patriotic  Englishman ; 
taking  a  prominent  part  in  the  old  disputes  between  the 
civil  and  the  ecclesiastical  powers ;  but  he  became  also 
in  a  marked  degree  the  religious  Reformer,  because  of 
his  deepening  convictions  of  the  baseless  claim  of  spiritual 
authority  set  up  by  Rome,  and  because  of  its  corruptions, 


A.D.  1374-1399.]  DOCTOR  EVANGELICUS.  409 

As  a  reward  for  his  services  at  Bruges,  he  was  appointed 
one  of  the  royal  chaplains,  and  received  a  prebendal 
stall  in  the  collegiate  church  of  Westbury.  He  was 
afterwards  presented  to  the  living  of  Lutterworth,  and 
the  place  is  inseparably  connected  with  his  name.  Prior 
to  that,  he  had  been  parson  of  Fillingham,  in  Lincoln- 
shire, for  seven  years,  and  of  Ludgershall,  in  Bucks,  for 
six  years. 

As  is  the  case  with  all  reformers,  there  was  a  gradual 
development  in  Wycliffe's  views.  In  his  earlier  days, 
he  taught  doctrines  which  he  afterwards  abandoned,  or 
modified,  or  opposed.  His  original  quarrel  was  with 
the  practices  rather  than  with  the  theology  of  Rome. 
It  is  problematical  whether  his  ultimate  position  was  so 
advanced  as  some  eulogists  imagine.  He  is  not  to  be 
held  responsible  for  constructions  forced  upon  his  words. 
To  claim  for  him  the  decided  Protestantism  of  the  six- 
teenth century  is  alike  unjust  and  absurd.  He  cannot 
be  gauged  and  measured  by  modern  standards  of  orthodoxy. 
The  marvel  is,  considering  all  the  circumstances,  that  he 
should  have  emancipated  himself  to  such  an  extent  from 
opinions  rendered  venerable  by  antiquity  and  enforced 
by  the  highest  authority.  Like  many  another  man,  he 
"  builded  better  than  he  knew."  His  habit  of  referring 
all  disputed  points  to  Scripture  was  so  marked,  even  in 
the  first  authentic  glimpses  that  are  furnished  of  his 
career,  as  to  obtain  for  him  the  popular  appellation  of 
Doctor  Evangelicus.  But  no  one  would  have  been  more 
surprised  than  himself  to  find  the  modern  meaning  of 
that  word  applied  to  him.  In  his  days,  a  Lutheran 
Protestant,  or  a  Puritan  of  the  seventeenth  century,  or 
an  Erastian  of  the  Georgian  era,  still  less  a  nineteenth 
century  High  Churchman  or  an  Evangelical  Noncon- 
formist, would  have  been  an  anachronism  and  an  im- 
possibility. Even  Luther  and  Melanchthon  did  not 
understand  their  great  archetype.  They  thought  him 
lamentably  defective  in  knowledge  of  their  cardinal 
doctrine  of  Justification  by  Faith.  Dean  Milman  says 
that  he  destroyed,  but  built  no  new  edifice.  Arch- 
bishop Trench  finds  solace  in  the  circumstance  that 
the  Reformation  was  not  in  Wycliffe's  time,  or  of  his 
doing ;    because    "  from   a   Church    reformed    under   the 


4ro  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE,  [chap.  xxvi. 

auspices  of  one  who  was  properly  the  spiritual  ancestor 
of  the  Puritans,  the  CathoHc  element  would  in  good 
part,  perhaps  altogether,  have  disappeared.  Milton, 
more  truly,  says, — •"  Had  it  not  been  for  the  obstinate 
perverseness  of  our  prelates  against  the  divine  and 
admirable  spirit  of  VVycliffe,  to  suppress  him  as_  a 
schismatic  or  innovator,  perhaps  neither  the  Bohemian 
Huss  and  Jerome — no,  nor  the  name  of  Luther  or 
Calvin— had  ever  been  known  \  the  glory  of  reforming 
all  our  neighbours  had  been  completely  ours."  The 
precise  fact  is  that  Wyclifife  no  more  thought  of  seceding 
from  the  Church  of  which  he  found  himself  a  member 
than  from  the  nation  of  which  he  formed  a  part.  Re- 
form ^tion  from  within  was  his  hope  and  aim.  This 
coitinn.ed  to  be  the  case  for  generations  with  earnest 
men  :  how  vainly,  Time  alone  was  to  demonstrate. 

Then  followed,  amidst  the  stormy  scenes  in  which 
the  reign  of  Edward  III.  ended,  a  series  of  angry  theo- 
logical controversies  ;  hot  as  the  fabled  fires  in  Tophet. 
The  forces  of  the  Church  stood  in  serried  ranks  against 
Wycliffe,  and  the  thunder  of  clerical  artillery  was  heard. 
In  1377,  he  was  cited  to  appear  in  St.  Paul's,  before 
Courtenay,  Bishop  of  London,  to  answer  for  his  opinions 
and  teachings.  It  is  significant,  that  their  political 
and  social  bearings,  not  such  as  were  theological,  formed 
the  ground  of  inquiry.  The  object  was  to  reach  John 
of  Gaunt,  through  the  Reformer,  whom  he  had  be- 
friended for  reasons  of  his  own.  His  father  was  rapidly 
sinking.  The  heir  to  the  throne  was  but  a  child. 
Gaunt  was  playing  for  his  own  hand.  He  and  other 
self-seeking  aristocrats  designed,  under  cover  of  reforming 
the  Church,  to  divert  a  large  portion  of  its  revenues 
to  themselves.  A  powerful  but  factious  nobleman  who 
interfered  with  the  liberty  of  Parliaments,  who  violated 
in  the  grossest  manner  the  sanctuary  of  the  Church — 
even  instigating  a  murder  in  Westminster  Abbey — and 
who  encouraged  corruption  of  every  kind,  was  no  real 
friend  to  Wycliffe,  and,  as  the  sequel  showed,  had  no 
sympathy  with  his  religious  opinions  and  objects. 
Lancaster,  with  his  worldly  and  selfish  associates,  only 
sought  to  bring  down  the  arrogance  of  equally  worldly 
and  selfish    prelates,  in  order  to   undermine    their  power 


A. D.  1 374-1 399-]     SCENE  IN  ST.  PAUnS.  411 

and  to  secure  their  wealth.  They  did  not  perceive  that 
the  challenge  fiung  down  by  Wycliffe,  in  the  doctrine 
of  Dominion  founded  in  Grace,  opened  wider  issues. 
Greedy  nobles  delighted  to  have  such  a  weapon  placed 
in  their  hands  for  the  purpose  of  cutting  down  their 
hated  rivals  among  the  prelates  and  the  higher  clergy  ; 
until  they  suddenly  discovered  that  the  weapon  could 
be  turned  against  themselves.  The  dominion,  amount- 
ing to  despotism,  which  they  claimed  over  the  peasantry, 
the  compulsory  services  exacted,  the  scanty  pay  doled 
out,  and  sometimes  withheld,  did  not  seem  to  the 
wretched  labourers  to  be  in  any  way  founded  in  grace. 
When  the  insurrection  of  1381  broke  out,  the  nobles 
found  that  they  were  playing  with  edged  tools  which 
cut  their  own  hands.  They  abandoned  the  Reformers, 
and  made  common  cause  against  what  were  held  to  be 
subversive  and  socialistic  teachings.  Nobles  and  prelates, 
landowners  and  clergy,  banded  together  to  form  a  party 
of  resistance.  Wycliffe  was  no  longer  likely  to  be  useful ; 
he  was  therefore  ruthlessly  flung  aside,  and  the  incon- 
gruous alliance  between  the  religious  enthusiast  and  the 
corrupt  courtier  was  dissolved. 

In  the  meantime,  as  it  served  Gaunt's  purpose,  he 
stood  by  the  Reformer  in  St.  Paul's,  in  1377,  with  Lord 
Percy,  the  Earl  Marshal.  The  scene  has  been  frequently 
described,  and  has  furnished  a  subject  to  painters.  A 
wordy  warfare,  that  might  be  designated  vulgar  and 
acrimonious,  took  place.  The  dignitaries  in  Church  and 
State  abused  and  threatened  each  other;  Wycliffe  re- 
maining silent  and  passive.  There  was  a  popular  tumult, 
with  much  noise  and  some  broken  heads  :  the  crowd 
taking  sides  with  the  Bishop  or  the  Duke,  but  chiefly 
against  the  latter.  Nothing  came  of  it,  or  of  another 
appearance  by  Wycliffe  in  the  following  year  before  a 
Synod  at  Lambeth,  as  the  result  of  a  set  of  Bulls  issued 
from  Rome,  by  Gregory  XL  (b.  1329,  r.  1370-1378)  ; 
the  promulgation  of  which,  however,  was  illegal  in 
England.  After  an  interval,  there  was  a  formal  censure 
of  his  teachings  at  a  similar  assembly  in  1382,  and  also 
in  Convocation  at  Oxford.  All  that  was  done  was  to 
formulate  numerous  charges  of  alleged  heretical  opinions 
in  his  writings.     He  appealed  to  the  King  and  the  Parlia- 


412  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE,  [chap.  xxvi. 

ment  against  his  clerical  judges,  in  'The  Complaint'; 
a  remarkable  document,  re-stating  the  royal  supremacy, 
which  they  had  so  long  contemned.  The  censures 
proved  harmless.  Several  of  his  devoted  followers  were 
reprimanded  or  suspended,  but  the  Wyclififite  party  in 
the  University  was  not  put  down  for  a  quarter  of  a 
century,  and  then  only  by  the  severe  measures  of  Arch- 
bishop Arundel;  with  the  effect  that  its  overthrow 
involved  that  of  intellectual  independence  and  research. 
For  more  than  a  hundred  years,  the  history  of  Oxford 
was  a  record  of  almost  continuous  decline  in  learning, 
morals,  and  religion.  But  Wycliffe's  character  and 
attainments,  his  popularity  in  the  University,  and  the 
protection  of  powerful  friends  at  Court,  secured  com- 
parative immunity  for  him  during  the  short  remainder 
of  his  life. 

Another  cause  operated  in  his  favour.  The  fierce 
dispute  waging  between  Urban  VI.  and  Clement  VIL, 
the  rival  Popes  at  Rome  and  at  Avignon —  a  dispute 
known  as  the  Western  Schism,  which  broke  out  in 
1378  —  rendered  the  proceedings  futile.  Wycliffe  was 
practically  unmolested  amidst  the  din  of  strife  over 
personal  issues.  Both  of  the  spiritual  potentates  had 
dubious  titles.  Each  fulminated  against  the  other  the 
customary  Bulls  of  denunciation.  Each  anathematized 
the  adherents  of  the  opposite  side ;  giving  them  over 
to  irremediable  perdition.  The  unedifying  spectacle 
was  presented  to  the  world,  of  a  Church,  claiming  to 
be  universal  and  infallible,  rent  and  torn  for  nearly 
half  a  century  by  a  contest  for  the  Popedom.  But  it 
helped  on  the  movement  that  culminated  in  the 
great  religious  revolt  of  the  sixteenth  century.  The 
idea  of  the  unity  of  Christendom  was  exploded.  The 
convening  of  the  Councils  of  Pisa,  in  1409,  and  of 
Constance  from  1414  to  1418,  to  heal  the  breach,  and 
to  end  the  scandal  of  rival  Popes,  was  fatal  also 
to  the  perpetuation  of  the  Hildebrandist  theory ; 
for  the  Papal  supremacy  was  thereby  subordinated  to 
the  deliverances  of  General  Councils  of  the  Church. 
For  a  time,  the  restraint  was  cast  off;  but  after  the 
mighty  storm  of  the  Reformation  had  swept  over 
Europe,  the  Council  of  Trent   asserted   its  powers,   and 


A.D.  1374- 1399.]        PAPAL  SCHISM.  413 

effected  some  needful  reforms.  In  Wycliffe's  time, 
however,  the  struggle  between  the  rival  Popes  was 
not  merely  for  ecclesiastical  dominion.  Politics  entered 
largely  into  it.  The  personal  rivalries  of  sovereigns 
fomented  the  strife.  France,  Spain,  Scotland,  and 
Sicily  recognised  Clement  VII.  at  Avignon,  and  his 
successor,  Benedict  XIII.,  who,  though  deposed  by  the 
Council  of  Pisa,  remained  in  schism  until  his  death, 
fourteen  years  later.  England,  Germany,  and  the  rest 
of  Europe  adhered  to  Urban  VI.  and  the  Roman 
Curia.  This  quarrel  explains  why  the  proceedings  against 
Wycliffe  were  inoperative.  An  earthquake  that  occurred 
in  London,  in  the  midst  of  his  trial  in  1382,  filled  his 
adversaries  with  consternation,  and  was  regarded  by 
them,  as  was  usual  in  that  day,  as  a  solemn  portent 
from  Heaven.  Wycliffe,  on  the  contrary,  interpreted  it 
in  his  own  favour,  as  he  had  a  perfect  right  to  do  : — - 
"  Against  the  utterances  of  such  false  doctrines  as  those 
of  the  prelates  and  friars,  when  Christians  are  silent, 
the  earth  itself  cries  out." 

His  tract  '  On  the  Schism  of  the  Roman  Pontiffs,'  one 
of  a  series  of  homely  but  powerful  Tracts  for  the  Times, 
is  among  the  most  pungent  of  his  writings.  He  com- 
pares the  dispute  to  a  quarrel  of  two  dogs  over  a  bone, 
and  suggests  that  the  European  princes  should  take  away 
the  bone ;  that  is,  the  temporal  power  of  the  Papacy. 
He  was  left  more  or  less  free  for  the  two  remaining  years 
of  his  life,  to  carry  on  his  work  of  preaching,  teaching, 
and  writing.  He  laid  great  stress  on  the  first  of  these; 
as  the  early  Friars  had  done.  He  sent  out  a  number  of 
graduates  and  undergraduates  from  Oxford,  known  as 
Wycliffe's  Poor  Priests.  They  have  been  described,  not 
inaptly,  as  the  Methodists  of  the  fourteenth  century. 
Their  business  was,  not  to  administer  the  Sacraments,  or 
perform  any  ritual,  but  to  preach  the  Gospel,  and  to 
instruct  the  people  in  the  elements  of  Christian  doctrine 
and  practice.  Clad  in  russet  garb  of  undyed  wool,  with 
unsandalled  feet,  and  dependent  entirely  for  support  upon 
such  kindness  as  they  might  receive,  they  traversed  the 
country,  addressing  in  homely  English  speech  all  who 
would  listen  to  them,  in  the  city  streets,  by  the  roadside, 
on  the  village  green,  in  markets  and  fairs,  and  in  churches, 


414  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE,  [chap.  xxvi. 

when  these  were  accessible.  Their  colloquial  discourses 
and  pungent  invective  aroused  attention.  PrelaticaJ 
authority  and  vested  interests  became  alarmed.  Possibly 
these  earnest  enthusiasts  were  not  always  wise.  Their 
treatment  of  existing  abuses  was  free  and  bold.  A 
Proclamation,  designed  to  have  the  force  of  law,  was 
issued  during  the  minority  of  Richard  II.  for  the  sup- 
pression of  heresy.  When  attempts  were  made  by  the 
clerical  party  to  enforce  this  pseudo-enactment — which 
still  finds  a  place  among  the  earlier  Statutes — the 
Commons  in  Parliament  declared  that  it  had  never  been 
submitted  to  or  sanctioned  by  them,  and  that  they  did 
not  intend  to  subject  themselves  to  the  Church  in  any 
other  way  than  their  fathers  had  done.  Not  yet  were  the 
fires  of  persecution  to  be  kindled  in  England,  although 
they  had  raged  furiously  on  the  Continent  for  more  than 
a  century. 

VVycliffe  himself  was  busy  during  these  stirring  times. 
He  wrote  tracts  and  pamphlets  on  the  controversies  then 
waging.  They  are  practical  moral  treatises,  rather  than 
theological ;  dealing  with  social  and  clerical  abuses,  like 
those  that  had  formed  the  theme  of  the  satire  of 
Walter  Mapes,  two  hundred  years  before,  or  of  that  of 
the  '  Vision  of  Piers  Ploughman.'  Many  other  tracts 
conjecturally  assigned  to  Wycliffe  belong  to  a  much 
later  period  ;  among  which,  it  is  almost  certain,  is  '  The 
Last  Age  of  the  Church.'  Those  of  which  he  is  un- 
questionably the  author  are  so  numerous  as  to  awaken 
astonishment  at  his  zeal  and  industry.  They  are  couched 
in  bold,  simple,  nervous  language,  abounding  in  idioms 
and  imagery  such  as  the  common  people  could  under- 
stand. Copies  were  multiplied  by  transcription,  and 
widely  disseminated.  Wandering  scholars  carried  his 
Latin  works  all  over  the  Continent,  where  his  doctrines 
were  eagerly  received ;  especially  in  the  new  University 
of  Prague,  in  Bohemia.  Founded  by  the  Emperor 
Charles  IV.,  on  the  models  of  Paris,  Bologna,  and 
Oxford,  it  speedily  attained  to  European  eminence ; 
attracting  to  itself,  while  sending  forth  to  other  centres, 
the  commerce  of  learning.  The  marriage  of  Richard  11. 
and  Anne  of  Bohemia  brought  further  intercourse 
between    the   two   countries,    and    the    Queen  was   sup- 


A.D.  1374-1399.]  JOHN  BUSS.  415 

posed  to  be  not  unfriendly  to  the  new  doctrines.  They 
had  spread  in  Bohemia  under  the  teaching  of  such  men 
as  Conrad  of  Waldhausen,  MiHcz  of  Kremsier,  Adelbert 
Ranconis,  and  John  of  Stekna  ;  all  of  whom  protested 
against  clerical  corruption,  and  paved  the  way  for  the 
definite  teaching  of  John  Huss  and  of  Jerome  of  Prague. 
The  latter,  on  his  return  from  studying  in  Oxford,  took 
with  him  Wycliffe's  theological  writings,  in  1401.  Huss 
had  already  copied  for  himself  some  of  the  earlier  treatises, 
and  through  their  teachings  became  the  Reformer  of 
Bohemia.  All  attempts  to  interdict  them,  and  to  stop 
the  circulation,  were  in  vain  ;  as  in  141  o,  when  more 
than  two  hundred  copies  were  seized  and  burned ; 
followed,  five  years  later,  by  the  burning  of  Huss.  His 
spirit  and  teachings  survived  in  the  Unitas  Fratrum,  or 
Moravians,  as  they  were  called  in  a  later  day,  and  then 
in  the  Waldensians  of  Dauphine  and  Piedmont.  All  of 
these  stand  in  the  line  of  spiritual  succession  from 
Wycliffe.  Jerome  of  Prague  also  met  with  a  fiery 
doom  in  141 6.  In  the  case  of  Huss,  it  was  not  only 
a  martyrdom,  but  a  murder  ;  for  he  went  to  the  Council 
of  Constance  under  the  protection  of  Wenceslas,  King 
of  Bohemia,  and  with  the  safe-conduct  of  the  Emperor 
Sigismund,  both  of  which  were  violated,  on  the  impu- 
dent and  immoral  maxim,  so  long  acted  upon  and  gloried 
in  by  Rome,  that  no  faith  could  be  kept  with  heretics. 

In  his  '  Wicket,'  which  has  often  been  republished, 
Wycliffe  appeals  in  homely  vernacular  in  support  of  the 
supreme  authority  of  Scripture.  He  speaks  of  the  great 
temptation  the  faithful  are  under  to  leave  the  strait 
gate  and  the  narrow  way,  and  to  wander  in  the  large  and 
broad  way  of  a  belief  in  Transubstantiation.  The  concep- 
tion of  human  life  as  a  pilgrimage,  with  Heaven  as  a  goal, 
has  always  been  popular.  It  was  especially  so  in  a  time 
when  men  had  not  learned  the  dignity  and  worth  of  the 
present  life.  He  fearlessly  attacked  the  avarice  of  the 
clergy,  and  contended  for  their  moral  fitness.  He  dis- 
approved of  the  practice  of  private  auricular  confession. 
He  rebuked  the  presumptuous  dogma  that  without 
extreme  unction  no  man  could  be  saved.  He  denied  the 
Pope's  power  to  bind  and  loose  ;  and  his  claim  to  be  the 
Vicar  of  Christ  or  of  St  Peter.     Thus  he  cut  at  the  root 


4r6  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE,  [chap.  xxvi. 

of  sacerdotalism,  and,  perhaps  unconsciously,  enunciated 
principles  that  were  to  have  their  full  development  in 
after  ages.  He  renewed  his  attacks  upon  his  old  enemies, 
the  Mendicant  Friars,  who,  in  the  punning  style  of  that 
day,  called  him  Doctor  Wicked-believe  ;  and  whom  he 
charged  with  being  the  reverse  of  all  that  they  pretended 
to  be.  He  made  their  likeness  to  Satan  to  consist  in 
their  peculiar  hypocrisy.  His  'Trialogus,'  issued  to- 
wards the  close  of  his  life,  is  a  Latin  dialogue  between 
Falsehood,  Truth,  and  Good  Sense,  on  the  Deity,  the 
spiritual  world,  the  virtues,  and  ecclesiastical  doctrines 
and  institutions.  In  this  work,  intended  for  the  learned, 
he  advanced  by  bold  steps,  and  declared  the  Roman 
Pontiff  to  be  Antichrist  ;  ridiculed  the  adoration  of 
saints  ;  asserted  the  mediatorial  office  of  Christ ;  assailed 
sacerdotalism  ;  and  condemned  the  superseding  of  Scrip- 
ture by  tradition,  and  the  granting  of  Indulgences.  On 
the  Eucharist,  he  opposed  the  dogma  of  Transubstantia- 
tion,  and  asserted  that  though  sacramental  effect  took 
place  on  the  consecration,  yet  that  the  bread  and  wine 
were  only  sacramentally,  that  is,  mentally  and  spiritually, 
changed.  He  believed  in  a  Real  Presence,  without  a 
change  of  substance.  In  renouncing  that  cardinal  and 
central  doctrine  of  the  Church,  which  had  been  generally 
accepted  for  more  than  five  centuries,  and  formally  and 
authoritatively  laid  down  for  three  centuries,  fortified  by 
all  the  subtle  learning  of  the  Schoolmen  into  a  citadel  of 
priestly  power,  he  took  the  most  decided  step  in  his  career 
as  a  Reformer.  To  deprive  the  clergy  of  the  power  of 
working  the  daily  miracle  of  "making  the  body  of 
Christ,"  according  to  the  accepted,  orthodox  phrase,  was 
a  vital  attack  upon  the  prevalent  Church  system.  He 
may  not  have  foreseen  the  logical  issue,  which  was 
nothing  less  than  the  great  religious  revolt  of  the  six- 
teenth century  that  severed  England,  in  common  with 
most  of  the  Teutonic  nations,  from  the  Romish  Church, 
and,  long  afterwards,  led  to  full  civil  and  religious  freedom. 
Wycliffe's  crowning  task  was  the  superintendence  of  a 
translation,  for  the  first  time,  of  the  whole  of  the  Bible 
into  the  English  tongue.  Portions  had  been  so  rendered 
from  the  Latin  by  ^Icuin  (725-804),  ^-Elfric,  Archbishop 
of  York  (1023),  and  others;  besides  various  glosses  since 


A.D.  1374-1399.]         WYCLIFFES  BIBLE.  417 

the  time  of  Baeda ;  but  there  was  no  complete  prose 
translation.  The  early  versions  had  grown  obsolete, 
where  they  were  not  forgotten  or  destroyed.  The 
Psalter  was  the  only  part  fully  extant.  The  great 
design  appears  to  have  been  slowly  maturing  for  a 
lengthened  period  in  the  mind  of  Wycliffe,  but  was 
not  actually  accomplished  until  after  the  year  1380. 
Necessity  was  laid  upon  him,  because  of  the  profound 
ignorance  of  the  Word  of  God  among  the  people.  He 
had  the  assistance  of  able  coadjutors,  like  Nicholas  Here- 
ford and  John  Purvey ;  the  latter  of  whom  issued  a 
further  revision  after  Wycliffe's  death.  Even  so,  it  was  a 
prodigious  hterary  achievement  for  such  an  age,  and  in 
the  midst  of  his  polemical  warfare.  To  him  may  be 
applied,  in  the  words  of  his  own  version,  what  is  said 
('  Ecclesiasticus.'  i.  6,  7)  of  the  son  of  Onias  : — "  As  the 
dai  sterre  in  the  myddes  of  a  cloude,  and  as  a  ful  moone 
schyneth  in  hise  dales,  and  as  the  sunne  schynynge,  so  he 
schynede  in  the  temple  of  God."  The  rendering  is  from 
the  Latin  Vulgate ;  and  the  double  process  of  translation 
explains  the  peculiarities  of  inflection  and  many  apparent 
contrarieties.  Yet  there  is,  in  the  main,  substantial 
agreement  with  later  versions ;  as  may  be  seen  by  a 
comparison,  and  allowing  for  changes  in  orthography. 
The  translation  is  of  special  interest  as  presenting  a  strong 
colloquial  English  element ;  the  idiom  and  the  structure 
being  such  as  were  commonly  used  by  the  people  of  that 
day.  The  version  is  not  difificult  to  read,  though  many 
of  the  words,  and  especially  some  phrases  in  the  theo- 
logical nomenclature,  are  obsolete,  and  few  of  the 
expressive  compound  words  have  survived.  The  New 
Testament  was  hrst  completed.  About  one  hundred  and 
fifty  manuscript  copies,  in  various  sizes,  of  the  differenl: 
issues,  with  sHght  variations,  are  still  preserved  in  the 
University  Libraries  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  in  some 
of  the  older  Cathedrals,  in  the  British  Museum  Library, 
in  that  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  and  elsewhere.  Par- 
ticulars are  given  by  Forshall  and  Madden,  in  their 
elaborate  preface  to  the  edition  of  this  great  work  issued 
in  1850  irom  the  Oxford  University  Press,  which  also 
contains  the  most  complete  and  valuable  account  extant 
of  earlier  manuscri[/t  versions. 
29 


4i8  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE,  [chap.  xxvi. 

The  translation  thus  made  was  eagerly  sought  after. 
Copies,  either  of  the  whole,  but  more  often  of  separate 
books,  passed  into  the  hands  of  all  classes,  excepting  the 
very  poor,  and  were  eagerly  read  or  listened  to.  Most  of 
them  have  perished,  not  only,  and  perhaps  not  chiefly, 
from  use  or  the  lapse  of  Time,  but  from  the  rigorous 
measures  taken  for  their  suppression  early  in  the  fifteenth 
century.  To  issue  the  Scriptures  in  the  vernacular  was 
regarded  as  an  act  of  deadly  heresy.  The  Wycliffite 
versions  continued  to  be  proscribed  until  the  Reforma- 
tion. The  fact  of  possessing  them,  or  any  other  writings 
which  spiritual  despotism  chose  to  stigmatize  as  heretical, 
was  sufficient  in  many  instances  to  ensure  a  fiery  martyr- 
dom. Knighton,  the  Chronicler,  expresses  the  opinion  of 
moi^t  of  the  clergy  when  he  thus  denounces  Wycliffe's 
work  : — "  In  this  way  the  Gospel  pearl  is  cast  abroad 
and  trodden  under  foot  of  swine,  and  that  which  was 
before  precious,  both  to  clergy  and  laity,  is  rendered  the 
common  jest  of  both.  The  jewel  of  the  Church  is  turned 
into  the  sport  of  the  people,  and  what  had  hitherto  been 
the  choice  gift  of  the  clergy  and  of  divines,  is  made  for 
ever  common  to  the  laity."  Apart  from  its  religious 
aspect,  this  great  work  has  an  abiding  "  and  peculiar 
literary  value.  It  helped  materially  in  a  time  of  transi- 
tion and  formation  to  enlarge  the  national  speech. 
Wycliffe  was  part  creator  of  a  vocabulary.  He  is  the 
father  of  modern  English  prose.  His  translation  forms 
a  conspicuous  landmark  in  our  literary  annals.  There 
were  other  labourers  in  the  field,  like  the  problematical 
Sir  John  Mandeville,  whose  curious  alleged  '  Travels ' 
were  mentioned  in  the  nineteenth  Chapter,  and  whom 
Professor  Henry  Morley  calls  "our  first  prose  writer  in 
formed  English  ; "  but  Wycliffe  is  far  more  entitled  to  the 
appellation.  Momentous  consequences  have  resulted  from 
the  fact  that  the  first  truly  popular  literature  in  England, 
and  the  first  that  stirred  the  hearts  of  all  classes,  as  is  set 
forth  in  the  next  Chapter,  filling  their  minds  with  ideal 
pictures,  and  their  every-day  speech  with  apt  and  telling 
phrases,  was  this  untold  wealth  of  Biblical  literature. 
It  supplied  the  place  which  in  modern  times  is  filled  by 
poem  and  essay,  by  novel  and  newspaper,  by  review  and 
scientific   treatise,    by    lecture    and    public    meeting.     As 


A.D.  1374-1399.]  ITS  RAXGE  AND  FLEXIBILITY.    419 

compared  with  Tyndale's  great  work,  a  century  and  a 
half  later,  the  influence  was  inferior,  only  because  of  the 
laborious  process  of  transcription,  prior  to  the  Invention 
of  Printing ;  but  what  may  be  regarded  as  the  Biblical 
phraseology  which  Tyndale  perpetuated  and  extended, 
and  which  is  embalmed  in  the  Authorized  Version,  took 
its  rise  in  the  English  form  from  Wycliffe's  rendering 
out  of  the  Latin  Vulgate. 

No  arbitrary  date  can  be  assigned  to  the  formation  of 
what  is  popularly  called  the  English  language.  It  grew 
up  consentaneously  with  the  free  institutions  of  the 
country.  In  its  Saxon  form,  and  allowing  for  local 
dialects,  it  continued  to  be  the  popular  speech  down  to 
the  time  of  Richard  I.,  if  not  later ;  although  many 
Norman-French  words  had  been  introduced,  because  this 
was  the  language  of  the  Court,  as  Latin  was  of  the 
learned.  There  was  a  process  of  slow  development, 
but  the  names  of  common  objects  remained  the  same, 
and,  allowing  for  inevitable  mutations  in  form,  it  is 
certain  that  numerous  old  expressions  lingered  among 
the  peasantry  for  generations.  They  can  still  be  traced ; 
and  the  original  vocabulary  exists,  in  substance,  in  large 
portions  of  the  English  Bible.  The  barons  used  the 
speech  of  their  ancestors,  even  after  they  had  learned 
to  take  pride  in  the  name  of  Englishmen.  Ranulph 
Higden,  writing  in  the  early  part  of  the  reign  of  Edward 
III.,  asserts  that  "gentlemen's  children  are  taught  to 
speak  French  from  the  time  they  are  rocked  in  their 
cradle;  and  uplandish" — i.e.,  country  or  inferior — "men 
will  liken  themselves  to  gentlemen,  and  learn  with  great 
business  to  speak  French,  to  be  the  more  told  of." 
Though  this  was  the  usual  language  of  the  upper  classes, 
it  by  no  means  follows  that  they  were  ignorant  of  the 
English  tongue.  Men  living  upon  their  estates,  sur- 
rounded by  their  tenantry,  were  not  likely  to  permit 
such  a  barrier  to  exist  against  personal  intercourse.  The 
administration  qf  jqstice,  in  the  local  courts,  rendered 
essential  a  knowledge  of  the  vernacular  speech.  Its 
compulsory  use  in  judicial  proceedings,  as  already 
pointed  out,  dates  from  1362.  With  Edward  III., 
"  Peace  had  her  victories  no   less  renowned  than  War  " 


420  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE,  [chap.  xxvi. 

His  mngnificent  additions  to  Windsor  Castle  express  the 
architectural  growth  and  some  of  the  intellectual 
influences  of  an  age  that  witnessed  the  advent  of 
Chaucer  and  Wycliffe,  and  the  settlement  of  the  English 
language.  It  was  fitting  that  the  popular  speech,  thus 
enlarged  and  eimobled,  should  become  the  vehicle  of 
legislation.  The  Parliament  of  1365,  was  opened  with  a 
speech  in  English,  and  there  are  in  Rymer's  '  Foedera  ' 
several  proclamations  of  Edward  III.,  in  which  the 
people  are  incited  against  the  King  of  France,  by  im- 
puting to  him  a  design  to  conquer  the  country  and  to 
abolish  their  language. 

Numerous  translations  of  foreign  metrical  romances, 
made  during  this  long  reign,  prove  that  the  native 
tongue,  in  its  altered  and  expanded  form,  was  in 
familiar  use.  As  showing  the  changes  since  the  time  of 
Higden,  in  less  than  two  generations,  John  of  Trevisa, 
writing  in  1385,  says  expressly: — "In  all  the  grammar 
schools  of  England,  children  leaveth  French,  and  con- 
strueth  and  learneth  in  English.  Also  gentlemen  have 
now  much  left  for  to  teach  their  children  French." 
The  pronunciation,  especially  of  the  vowel  sounds,  was 
broader  than  in  modern  times ;  and  many  words  to  be 
met  with  in  Wycliffe  and  Chaucer,  and  in  common  use 
even  in  the  time  of  Shakspere  and  Spenser,  have  become 
obsolete,  or  have  acquired  a  secondary  meaning.  The 
author  of  the  '  Vision  of  Piers  Plowman '  was  a  valuable 
contributor  in  the  work  of  fixing  and  widening  the 
speech  of  the  common  people.  They  read  with  delight, 
or  eagerly  listened  to  the  recital  of  his  mingled  strains 
of  devotion  and  irony,  and  his  vigorous  denunciations  of 
corruption  and  injustice.  Another  and  a  greater  writer 
of  the  age  was  Geoffrey  Chaucer — the  name,  like  many 
others  in  England,  originally  signifying  a  trade,  and,  in 
this  case,  that  of  a  hosier,  or,  sometimes,  a  shoemaker — • 
the  Father  of  English  Poetry,  as  he  is  termed  by 
Dryden,  although  with  marked  inaccuracy.  Rhyme  had 
made  its  appearance  shortly  after  the  Conquest,  if  not  then 
already  known  ;  and  it  had  become  more  popular  than 
the  Old  English  aUiterative  versification.  Chaucer, 
strictly  speaking,  was  by  no  means  the  earliest  of  the 
English   poets.     They   are    to    be   traced   far   back    into 


A.D.  1 374-1399.]  CHAUCER.  421 

Saxon  times.  But  he  is  the  exemplar  of  English  j)oetry 
in  its  new  and  abiding  form  ;  raising  it  to  a  height  of 
excellence  which  was  admired  and  imitated  by  contem- 
poraries and  followers.  He  writes,  not  for  one  order,  ot 
on  one  set  of  topics,  but,  like  his  great  successor,  Shak- 
spere,  for  all  classes,  gentle  and  simple  alike.  He  was 
master  of  its  science,  its  theology,  and  its  literature  ;  which 
he  did  so  much  to  create.     Tennyson  describes  him  as — 

"The  first  warbler,  whose  sweet  breath 

Preluded  those  melodious  bursts,  which  fill 
The  spacious  times  of  great  Elizabeth 
With  sounds  that  echo  still." 

Chaucer  is  the  great  story-teller  of  the  language ; 
an  English  Boccaccio,  with  not  a  little  of  the  coarse- 
ness of  his  Italian  prototype,  but  with  a  general  healthi- 
ness of  sentiment  and  fancy  all  his  own,  "  married 
to  immortal  verse."  He  supplies  many  of  the  modern 
forms  of  metre,  and  his  great  facility  in  rhyme  was 
owing  to  his  free  adoption  of  Anglicized  French  words. 
His  earlier  writings,  such  as  '  The  Flower  and  the 
Leaf,'  over  which  a  keen  controversy  still  wages,  and 
the  authentic  portion  of  'I'he  Romaunt  of  the  Rose,' 
like  the  French  fashions  then  prevalent,  are  gorgeous 
allegories  that  appeal  to  the  fancy ;  while  his  later 
works,  especially  his  'Canterbury  Tales,'  are  vivid  and 
abiding  portraitures  of  the  age.  His  poetry  reads 
like  history ;  because  of  the  intense  realism  of  his 
style.  He  contributed  largely  to  open  up  what  has  ever 
since  been  known  by  Spenser's  phrase,  as  "the  well 
of  English  undefiled."  Chaucer  is  supposed  to  have 
been  born  between  1330  and  1340,  in  London;  where 
most  of  his  hfe  was  spent  in  official  business.  The  son 
of  a  vintner,  he  became  attached  to  the  household  of 
Lionel,  Duke  of  Clarence,  third  son  of  Edward  HL 
Afterwards  he  accomplished  several  diplomatic  missions 
to  Italy,  France,  and  Flanders.  He  saw  many  men  and 
cities,  and  witnessed  imposing  ceremonies  in  Court  and 
Church.  These  visits  gave  direction  and  colour  to  his 
literary  tastes,  for  he  became  conversant  with  the  writings 
of  Dante  and  Boccaccio,  and  not  improbably  made  the 
acquaintance   of   Petrarch,    at   Arqua,    near  Padua.     He 


422  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE,  [chap.  xxvi. 

held  various  lucrative  ofifices ;  such  as  Comptroller  of 
the  Customs  of  Wools,  and  Clerk  of  the  King's  Works 
at  Westminster ;  besides  being  the  recipient  of  sundry 
pensions;  but  payment  was  frequently  interrupted, 
owing   to  the   troublous  times. 

Chaucer's  poetry  marks  a  literary  epoch ;  although 
his  vernacular  seems  strange  and  uncouth  to  modern 
readers.  It  has  been  well  said  concerning  him  that, 
after  the  dramas  of  Shakspere,  there  is  no  production  of 
man  that  displays  more  various  and  vigorous  talent. 
Professor  Skeat  has  issued  a  complete  and  scholarly 
edition.  Russell  Lowell's  essay,  in  '  My  Study  Windows,' 
gives  a  just  estimate  of  Chaucer's  powers.  In  the 
'Canterbury  Tales'  are  singled  out  for  description, 
among  others,  the  knight,  the  yeoman,  the  squire,  the 
prioress,  the  monk,  the  friar,  the  merchant,  the  Oxford 
scholar,  the  lawyer,  the  physician,  the  tradesman,  the 
cook,  the  shipman,  the  clothier,  the  parish  priest,  the 
miller,  the  reeve  (steward),  the  manciple  (house-steward), 
the  apparitor,  the  pardoner,  and  the  sumpnour ;  types  of 
the  persons  who  went  on  pilgrimage.  His  descriptions 
of  the  members  of  the  cavalcade  are  interesting  and 
valuable  as  furnishing  particulars  of  the  domestic  life  of 
England  towards  the  close  of  the  fourteenth  century. 
All  that  stirring  and  gaily-apparelled  time  is  seen  as  in  a 
magic  mirror,  reflecting  the  daily  manners  of  every  class. 
For  historical  purposes,  and  to  English  readers,  it  is 
worthy  to  be  compared  to  the  famous  "  tale  of  Troy 
Divine."  With  him  must  be  associated  John  Gower,  his 
personal  friend,  to  whom  'Troilus  and  Cressida'  was 
dedicated.  Chaucer  styles  him  "moral  Gower";  and 
the  epithet,  continued  by  Lydgate  and  others,  has  become 
indissolubly  linked  with  the  name.  The  date  of  his 
birth  is  unknown,  but  he  died  in  1408,  eight  years  after 
Chaucer,  and  was  interred  in  St.  Saviour's,  Southwark. 
A  voluminous  writer,  his  best  known  work  is  the  '  Con- 
fessio  Amantis ' ;  a  poem  of  portentous  length,  which 
discusses  the  morals  and  metaphysics  of  love.  Like  all 
his  writings,  it  is  heavy  and  prosaic.  He  was  learned, 
fluent,  and  harmonious ;  his  language  is  lucid,  and 
sometimes  forcible ;  he  is  grave  and  earnest,  but  lacks 
brilliancy  and  imagination,  and  is  never  profound.     He 


A.D.  1374-1399.]   WYCLIFFES  DEATH.  423 

is  wholly  conservative,  and  is  always  looking  back. 
After  this  period,  the  national  Muse  was  silent,  during 
the  French  Wars  and  the  Wars  of  the  Roses ;  unless 
dubious  exceptions  be  made  for  Thomas  Occleve  (1370- 
1454);  John  Lydgate  (1375-1460),  who  has  frequent 
references  to  his  "  maister,  Chaucer,"  and  always  speaks 
of  him  in  terms  of  affectionate  reverence ;  and,  finally, 
John  Skelton  (1460-1529),  Wolsey's  censor. 

Wycliffe's  great  task  was  accomplished.  He  had  been 
cited  to  Rome  by  Urban  VI.,  to  answer  for  his  opinions ; 
but  the  summons  came  too  late.  Two  years  before,  he 
had  been  seized  with  paralysis,  and  his  general  health  had 
greatly  suffered  in  the  interval ;  but  his  zeal  and  labours 
were  unabated.  In  the  closing  days  of  1384,  he  had 
another  attack,  while  attending  Divine  service  in  his 
church  at  Lutterworth.  Within  two  days  he  was  at 
rest.  His  adversaries  boasted,  with  the  confidence  of 
bigots  who  are  so  prone  to  arrogate  the  interpretation  of 
Providence,  heedless  of  Divine  teachings  about  the 
Tower  of  Siloam,  that  he  was  "suddenly  struck  by  the 
Judgment  of  God."  Thirty  years  later,  when  the  fell 
spirit  of  persecution  again  burst  forth,  the  Council  of 
Constance  took  an  impotent  revenge  on  the  English 
Reformer.  Certain  propositions  selected  from  his 
writings  were  condemned  as  heretical.  His  memory 
was  theatrically  consigned  to  infamy  and  execration.  An 
order  was  issued  that  his  body  and  bones,  "  if  they  might 
be  discovered,  and  known  from  the  bodies  of  faithful 
people,  should  be  taken  from  the  ground  and  thrown 
away  from  the  burial  of  the  Church."  In  accordance 
with  this  petty  malignity,  prompted,  perhaps,  by  a 
fear  lest  the  tomb  should  become  a  shrine,  a  crowd 
of  officials  swooped  down  upon  the  churchyard ;  and 
what  were  conjectured  to  be  the  remains  were  ex- 
humed, committed  to  the  fire,  and  cast  into  the 
adjacent  brook.  This  was  done  under  the  direc- 
tions of  Fleming,  Bishop  of  Lincoln  ;  who  founded 
Lincoln  College,  Oxford,  with  the  express  purpose  of 
arresting  the  current  of  heresy.  As  Fuller  quaintly 
says,  in  a  well-known  passage, — "  Thus  this  brook  has 
conveyed  his  ashes  into  the  Avon ;  the  Avon  into  the 
Severn ;  the  Severn  into  the  narrow  seas ;  and  they  into 


424  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE,  [chap,  xxvl 

the  main  ocean  ;  and  thus  the  ashes  of  Wycliffe  are  the 
emblem  of  his  doctrine,  which  is  now  dispersed  all  the 
world  over."  A  similar  posthumous  indignity  was 
offered  in  1538  to  the  remains  of  Becket.  The  fierce 
flames  of  persecution,  fed  by  theological  hatred,  could 
not  bring  to  light  any  moral  defects  and  inconsistency  in 
Wycliffe.  His  austere  and  exemplary  life  defied  the 
attacks  of  calumny.  According  to  John  Foxe's  account, 
Archbishop  Arundel  said,  on  William  Thorpe's  trial  for 
alleged  heresy  : — "  Wycliffe,  your  author,  was  a  great 
clerk :  many  men  held  him  a  perfect  liver."  He  was 
never  charged  with  pride,  self-interest,  or  self-indulgence. 
Considering  the  age  in  which  he  flourished,  and  the 
exceptional  circumstances  of  difficulty  in  which  he  was 
placed,  this  learned,  observant,  courageous  man  stands 
forth  as  a  remarkable  illustration  of  self-abandonment  in 
the  pursuit  of  a  lofty  purpose.  Though  the  eccle- 
siastical edifice  of  the  Middle  Ages  stood  for  one  hundred 
and  fifty  years  after  his  death,  it  was  undermined  and 
honeycombed ;  and  at  length  the  crash  came. 

Much  diversity  of  opinion  prevails  as  to  the  origin  of 
the  name  of  the  Lollards.  It  has  been  fancifully,  and  in 
a  metaphorical  sense,  supposed  by  Mosheim  to  be 
derived  from  the  German  lollen ;  "to  sing  in  a  low 
voice,  and  slowly ; "  as  in  dirges.  Conjecture  has  traced 
it  to  one  Walter  Lollardus,  a  German  Reformer,  who 
was  burned  at  Cologne  in  1322.  With  more  probability, 
it  comes  from  the  Latin  loliufn ;  or  "tares."  In  this 
sense  it  is  used  by  contemporary  writers  as  an  epithet  of 
scorn  against  those  who  were  regarded  as  disfiguring  and 
choking  the  garden  of  the  Church.  Whatever  its  origin 
or  primary  signification,  it  was  employed  at  the  end  of 
the  fourteenth  century  as  a  mark  of  contumely ;  just  as 
Puritan,  Quaker,  and  Methodist  were  employed  in  later 
times  ;  or  the  Cathari  of  the  Eastern  Empire ;  or  as  the 
A'ord  Christians  was  invented  at  Antioch  as  an  epithet  of 
derision.  "Nicknames,"  said  Napoleon,  "should  never 
be  despised;  it  is  by  such  means  mankind  are  governed." 
LoUardism  was  the  product  of  the  labours  of  Wycliffe 
and  his  Poor  Priests.  So  assiduous  and  devoted  were 
they,  that  the  teachings  of  the  Reformer  spread  all  over 
the  country  before  the  end  of  the  century.     The  common 


A.D.  1 374-1 399.]         THE  LOLLARDS.  425 

complaint  of  the  ecclesiastical  authorities,  as  expressed 
by  Knighton,  the  contemporary  Chronicler,  in  what 
must  be  regarded  as  a  rhetorical  exaggeration,  was  that 
"  every  second  man  one  meets  is  a  Lollard."  This  was 
said  to  be  the  case,  not  only  with  the  peasants,  but  in  the 
cities,  and  among  the  trading  classes  ;  while  adherents 
were  to  be  found  in  monasteries  and  parish  churches,  and 
many  in  the  Universities.  As  a  system,  Lollardism 
never  became  an  organized  movement.  So  far  as  it 
had  defined  principles,  they  may  be  said  to  have  been 
the  assertion  of  the  supreme  authority  of  the  Bible  as  a 
rule  of  faith  and  practice,  and  the  substitution  of  the 
individual  religious  life  for  a  dogmatic  and  official 
ecclesiasticism. 

Few  characteristics  of  medieval  manners  differ  more 
widely  from  modern  usages  than  the  apparent  coarseness 
of  speech,  and  the  freedom  with  which  persons  of  both 
sexes,  of  every  rank,  age,  and  pursuit,  garnished  their 
language  with  vows  to  saints,  with  familiar  appeals  to 
Deity,  and  with  profane  allusions  and  imprecations. 
Trades,  vocations,  diseases,  accidents,  bodily  members, 
appetites,  desires,  had  their  tutelary  saints,  whose  aid 
was  invoked  in  emergencies,  or  formed  the  subject  of 
exclamations  that  were  absurd  where  they  were  not 
blasphemous.  Chaucer's  Prioress  was  so  dainty  a  lady 
that  "  hire  gretest  othe  n'as  but  by  Saint  Eloy "  ;  but, 
with  one  exception,  his  other  characters  were  bold  and 
vehement  swearers.  The  Miller's  Wife  of  the  '  Canter- 
bury Tales  '  swears  by  St.  Thomas  of  Kent ;  the  carpenter 
by  St.  Frideswide ;  Nicholas  by  "  Goddes  corpus " ; 
Gerveis  by  "  Christes  foot,"  or  "  Christes  sweet  tree  "  ; 
the  sumpnour  by  '  Goddes  arms  two."  Among  other 
oaths  of  the  merry  travellers  are  "  nailes  and  bloode " ; 
St.  Thomas  of  India  ;  St.  Ronion  ;  "  Goddes  dignitie  "  ; 
"  Christes  sowle,"  and  so  forth.  The  only  one  to  protest 
or  to  express  disapprobation  is  the  poor  and  pious 
parson  ;  whose  reward  is  to  find  himself  suspected  as  a 
lavourer  of  Lollardism.  Its  adherents  were  always 
exposed  to  insult  and  reproach  for  what  was  regarded  as 
their  narrowness  and  precision.  They  were  noticeable 
for  simplicity  of  dress,  for  sobriety  of  language,  for  the 


426  THE  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE,  [chap.  xxvi. 

avoidance  of  frivolity  and  profanity,  and  for  a  spirit  and 
bcarinj^^  that  excited  a  charge  of  hypocrisy  among  the 
unthinking.  They  carried  their  views  of  the  sufficiency 
and  completeness  of  the  Scriptures  so  far  that  they 
conceived  them  to  be  the  only  sure  guide.  It  was 
demanded  that  the  ritual  of  the  Church,  as  well  as  its 
theology,  should  rest  upon  Scriptural  grounds.  When 
the  lawfulness  of  any  ecclesiastical  usage  was  in  debate, 
they  would  demand  the  revealed  authority  for  it.  They 
also  applied  their  principles  to  social  questions  ;  preach- 
ing against  corruptions  in  the  State  as  well  as  in  the 
Church.  Their  labours  before,  during,  and  subsequent  to 
the  grave  crisis  of  1381,  explain  in  a  great  measure  the 
passionate  attachment  of  the  common  people  to  Lollard 
tenets,  which  continued  throughout  the  next  century, 
and  paved  the  way  for  the  Reformation. 

Strenuous  attempts  were  made  to  put  down  Wycliffeism 
in  England ;  but  the  fire  smouldered ;  breaking  out 
ever  and  anon.  The  artisans  of  the  towns  and  the 
labourers  of  the  country-side  identified  their  emancipa- 
tion from  villenage  with  the  Lollard  teachers ;  and 
looked  to  them  in  connection  with  liberties  ardently 
hoped  for.  These  obscure  and  unknown  people  har- 
boured the  Poor  Priests  and  welcomed  their  doctrines  ; 
just  as  they  secreted  fragments  of  the  Bible  and 
Wycliffe's  tractates,  because  in  these  were  to  be  read 
the  charter  of  their  liberties  and  hopes.  There  is  an 
unbroken  continuity  traceable  between  LoUardism  and 
Puritanism.  The  latter  is  not  to  be  accounted  for 
wholly  or  chiefly  by  the  Genevan  experiences  of 
the  Marian  exiles,  or  by  the  influence  of  Luther  or 
of  Calvin.  These  had  their  influence ;  but  the  root- 
cause  is  much  older.  Wycliffeism  is  the  true  father 
of  English  Protestantism.  It  spread  and  grew  through- 
out the  Midland  and  Southern  counties,  but  especially 
in  the  four  Eastern  counties — then  among  the  most 
populous  parts  of  the  country — because  the  soil  had  been 
prepared  of  old  by  the  Poor  Priests.  The  same  districts 
furnished  also  the  largest  number  of  victims  during  the 
Marian  persecution  ;  showing  how  the  Lollard  teachings 
had   borne  fruit. 

The     religious     ferments     continued     and    increased. 


A.D.  1374-1399-]  COMPLAINTS  AGAINST  CLERGY.  427 

Some  persons  of  high  position  identified  themselves  with 
the  Lollards ;  probably  from  political  reasons.  In  May, 
1394,  a  petition  presented  by  the  Commons  in  Parlia- 
ment set  forth  certain  complaints  against  the  clergy,  and 
prayed  for  redress.  Under  twelve  heads  were  recited 
the  misappropriation  of  revenues ;  the  character  of  the 
priesthood,  and  the  scandalous  irregularities  arising  from 
celibacy ;  the  pretended  miracle  of  Transubstantiation ; 
the  use  of  exorcism  and  of  prayers  for  the  dead ;  the 
abuse  of  pilgrimages  and  of  auricular  confession ;  the 
judicial  functions  arrogated  by  prelates ;  and  the  pride 
and  luxury  caused  by  unnecessary  trades.  This  petition 
is  the  more  remarkable  because  of  its  varied  topics,  and 
the  boldness  with  which  they  are  set  forth.  They  were 
not  all  of  equal  importance.  Some  may  seem  to  modern 
readers  to  be  unworthy  of  complaint.  But  to  the  men 
who  thus  petitioned,  the  evils  were  terribly  real  and 
oppressive.  No  surprise  can  be  felt  that  they  had  not 
attained  to  ultimate  truth  on  all  the  points  indicated. 
It  was  the  shadowing  forth  of  a  dispute  which  the  strong 
arm  of  authority,  ceaselessly  exerted  for  generations, 
could  not  silence  or  suppress.  The  prelates  used  their 
influence  with  the  King,  who  sharply  rebuked  and 
threatened  certain  noblemen  suspected  of  favouring 
LoUardism.  An  oath  of  abjuration  was  enforced.  Pres- 
sure was  also  brought  to  bear  upon  preachers  known  to 
be  adherents  of  the  new  dogmas ;  and  some  were  per- 
suaded or  compelled  to  recant  the  alleged  heresy. 
Particulars  like  these  furnish  connecting  links  in  the 
chain  of  ecclesiastical  affairs,  between  the  detailed  state- 
ment which  has  been  furnished  respecting  Wycliffe,  and 
the  account  to  be  given  in  a  future  Chapter  of  the 
commencement  of  an  era  of  persecution,  when,  as  J.  R. 
Green  remarks, — "The  religious  revival  of  the  Lollard 
was  trodden  out  in  blood ;  while  the  Church  shrivelled 
into  a  self-seeking  secular  priesthood."  Never  had  her 
hold  upon  the  people  being  feebler,  or  her  wealth  greater ; 
and  never  did  she  show  herself  so  impotent  for  the  dis- 
charge of  high  and  holy  duties  to  mankind. 


4iS  THE  PEASANTS'  RISING,  [chap,  xxvii. 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 

THE   peasants'   RISING,    AND    SOCIAL   UPHEAVALS. 
A.D.   1377-1399- 

It  is  impossible,  in  considering  this  critical  period,  or 
any  part  of  English  history  during  the  Middle  Ages,  to 
separate  political  matters  from  such  as  were  theological  \ 
for  they  mutually  re-acted.  Englishmen  were  face  to 
face  with  a  pressing  emergency,  and  they  could  not 
waste  time  in  disputatious  logomachy  as  to  where  the 
temporal  power  ended  and  where  the  spiritual  began.  A 
distinct  line  of  cleavage  first  appears  in  the  time  of 
Elizabeth,  with  the  early  Separatists.  In  the  Plan- 
tagenet  era,  this  was  not  dreamed  of.  So  intimate  and 
vital  was  the  connection  between  things  secular  and 
things  sacred,  between  the  priesthood  and  the  nation, 
that  ecclesiastical  and  civil  affairs  were  inextricably 
blended.  The  rulers  in  Church  and  State,  in  pur- 
suance of  their  custom  in  every  age  and  country, 
denounced  as  heretics  those  who  sympathized  with  the 
new  religious  ideas ;  and  as  seditious  all  who  shared  in 
the  political  aspirations  of  that  period.  In  a  restricted 
sense,  they  were  right.  There  was  not  in  the  time  of 
Wycliffe  one  movement  distinctly  and  avowedly  religious, 
and  another  as  markedly  political.  The  Reformer  himself 
was,  doubtless,  more  influenced  by  the  spiritual  side  of  the 
agitation ;  but  it  gained  force  and  impetus  out  of 
political  and  social  conditions  as  much  as  from  the 
corruptions  of  the  Papacy.  The  time  was  one  of  agita- 
tion, inquiry,  and  transition.  Men's  minds  were  in  a 
state  of  expectancy  and  preparedness.  They  were  be- 
ginning to  think  for  themselves,  instead  of  meekly 
submitting  to  authority.  Not  even  the  most  sagacious 
could  forecast  the  nature  and  extent  of  impending 
changes  in  social,  political,  intellectual,  and  religious 
matters.  The  instincts  of  prelates  and  courtier!*,  per- 
ceived that  their  res[)ective  crafts  were  in  danger ;  like 
the  makers  of  the  silver  shrines  for  the  goddess  Diana 
at  Ephesus.  It  was  really  the  beginning  of  the  end,  so 
far  as  regards  that  era.     The  fmal  consummation  was  noL 


AD. I -:,■]^- 1 399J   W YCLIFFE'S  POOR  PRIESTS.  429 

effected  for  nearly  two  hundred  years.  The  history  of 
those  two  centuries  furnishes  numerous  signs  of  the 
deadly  struggle  waged  between  the  Protective  Spirit, 
feudal  tyranny,  vested  interests,  and  hierarchical  pre- 
tensions, on  the  one  hand ;  and  commercial  freedom, 
human  rights,  the  spirit  of  inquiry,  and  individual  judg- 
ment on  the  other  hand.  There  is  a  far-reaching  and 
closely-wrought  network  of  causation  in  human  affairs. 
Various  instruments  work  unconsciously  on  parallel  lines 
in  maturing  great  schemes  of  development.  Wycliffe 
was  toiling  at  the  foundations.  Subsequent  labourers 
reared  the  superstructure.  The  excitement  aroused,  and 
the  impatience  with  prevalent  suffering,  drove  many 
further  than  he  contemplated.  His  followers  could  not 
be  prevented  from  mingling  in  the  social  fray. 

The  Poor  Priests  whom  he  sent  out — even  admitting 
that  some  were  ignorant  fanatics — did  much  to  arouse 
the  popular  mind.  Portions  of  the  Scriptures,  hitherto 
a  sealed  book  to  the  multitude,  had  been  slowly  repro- 
duced by  copying  and  passed  from  hand  to  hand.  Old 
people  learned  to  read,  so  that  they  might  peruse  these 
wonderful  and  fascinating  stories.  They  were  repeated 
in  hovels  and  in  the  fields ;  in  the  town  market-place 
and  in  the  country  fair.  Doubtless  they  lost  nothing  in 
the  narration ;  nor  did  the  people  fail  to  catch  the 
modern  significance  as  they  listened  or  read,  or  as  the 
impassioned  speech  of  the  Poor  Priests  fell  upon  their 
ears.  It  was,  in  the  highest  sense,  a  new  revelation 
to  them.  While  they  appealed  to  it  as  the  Divine 
standard  of  correct  thinking  and  pure  living,  they  also 
discovered  the  treasures  of  a  noble  literature.  Ex- 
pressed in  their  own  idiomatic  and  colloquial  speech,  were 
stirring  history  and  biography ;  legendary  lore  and 
moving  miracle  ;  profound  metaphysics  and  pithy  pro- 
verbs ;  practical  theories  of  human  life ;  pathetic  stories 
of  human  suffering  ;  magnificent  instances  of  heroism  ; 
paeans  of  victory  over  self  and  sin  ;  psalms  of  unrivalled 
grandeur ;  pastorals  of  tender  beauty ;  sublime  visions ; 
bold  prophecies,  and  parables  such  as  all  could  under- 
stand. For  the  first  time,  men  heard  about  the  simple  life 
and  the  humble  trust  of  patriarchal  and  early  Christian 
ages.     They  were  moved  by  the  record  of  Divine  anger 


4 so  THE  PEASANTS'  RISING.  Icnxp.  xxvii. 

anr]  venireance  against  powerful  kings  and  rulers,  who 
oppressed  the  people  and  ground  the  face  of  the  poor. 
Indignant  protests  against  wrong  and  cruelty,  uttered 
by  ancient  prophets,  aroused  a  responsive  chord  in 
men  and  women  whom  no  human  eye  pitied  and  no 
human  hand  helped.  People  like  themselves  had  suffered 
in  the  ancient  days ;  but  the  arm  of  the  oppressor  had 
been  broken  and  the  captives  set  free. 

Pride,  worldliness,  hypocrisy,  and  formalism  had  been 
denounced  in  scathing  words  by  One  who  claimed  to  be 
the  Friend  and  the  Deliverer  of  the  human  race.  Of 
Him  it  was  recorded  that  the  common  people  heard  Him 
gladly.  He  brought  glad  tidings  to  the  poor  and  meek, 
and  declared  the  opening  of  the  prison  to  them  that  were 
bound.  He  made  known  the  Fatherhood  of  God  and 
the  Brotherhood  of  men.  He  was  the  Protector  of  the 
defenceless  and  the  Hope  of  the  despairing.  He  in- 
augurated the  reign  of  equity,  mercy,  and  peace.  Mar- 
vellous and  thrilling  words  were  read  from  the  Sacred 
Page,  and  enlarged  upon  by  these  plain  and  practical 
expositors,  about  human  rights,  and  liberties,  and  hopes. 
The  application  may  have  been  somewhat  strained.  The 
vivid  colouring  of  Oriental  speech  gave  an  intense  realism 
to  the  whole.  In  the  face  of  persistent  attempts  to  drag 
the  serfs  back  and  down  to  the  old  bondage,  it  is  not 
surprising  that  exhortations  to  resist,  even  by  force,  fell 
upon  willing  ears.  The  influence  of  these  itinerant 
preachers  was  deep  and  wide-spread.  The  effects  were 
speedily  seen  in  the  social  upheaval  that  broke  out.  The 
Ordinances  and  Statutes  of  the  time  report  their  habits 
and  speech ;  describing  them  as  of  austere  aspect  and 
having  the  "dissimulation  of  great  holiness."  They 
had  not  the  licenses  with  which  regular  preachers  were 
furnished  by  the  bishops.  They  were  charged  with 
preaching  "  divers  matters  of  slander,  to  engender  dis- 
cord and  dissension  betwixt  divers  estates  of  the  realm,  as 
well  spiritual  as  temporal."  Sheriffs  and  other  officers 
were  enjoined  to  watch  with  care  for  such  persons,  and  to 
send  them  to  prison.  Moreover,  the  ballads  of  the  time, 
well-known  and  popular,  narrated,  in  limping  metre,  but 
with  vigour  and  humour,  the  doughty  deeds  of  men  like 
Robin  Hood,  Friar  Tuck,  William  of  Cloudesley,  Clym  of 


A.D.  1377-1399.]  EARLY  SOCIALISM.  43^ 

the  Clough,  Little  John,  and  others,  who  are  supposed  to 
have  Uved  the  free  and  merry  Ufe  of  outlaws  in  Sher- 
wood and  Inglewood  Forests.  Myth,  tradition,  and 
fancy  largely  mingled  in  these  songs  and  stories ;  but 
their  effect  was  none  the  less  marvellous. 

In  all  periods  of  great  discontent  with  existing 
forms  and  conditions  of  society,  an  extreme  party  arises, 
advocating  principles  which  in  modern  times  have  received 
the  name  of  Socialism.  Doctrines  closely  resembling 
this,  if  not  identical  with  it,  were  preached  to  the 
populace  early  in  the  reign  of  Richard  II.  by  men  of 
ardent  temperament,  who  had  embraced  the  reforming 
principles  of  Wycliffe,  and  had  subsequently  thrown 
themselves  into  this  agitation.  The  wide  area  over 
which  it  spread,  the  marvellous  rapidity  with  which  the 
news  circulated,  the  informal  but  effective  communication 
opened  up  with  distant  places,  the  sudden  rise  of  the 
movement,  its  equally  sudden  apparent  collapse,  with 
the  abiding  results  that  grew  out  of  it,  are  noteworthy 
phenomena.  That  the  evils  complained  of  by  the 
infuriated  peasantry  were  no  longer  endurable,  and  that 
their  cup  of  bitterness  was  full  to  overflowing,  cannot  be 
doubted,  on  a  dispassionate  examination  of  all  the  cir- 
cumstances. Enough  has  been  stated  already,  in  the 
ninth  and  in  the  twenty-second  Chapters,  to  show  what 
was  their  actual  condition.  The  existence  of  such  in- 
tolerable wrongs  excused,  if  it  did  not  vindicate,  the 
chronic  discontent  which  only  awaited  an  opportunity  to 
break  forth  into  revolt.  The  waste  of  the  French  wars ; 
the  ruin  caused  by  repeated  attacks  of  the  Pestilence ; 
the  extravagance  of  the  Court ;  the  notorious  misrule  and 
oppression  of  the  great  men  ;  the  pinching  want  of  the 
poor,  and  the  newly-aroused  sentiment  concerning  the 
clergy,  contributed  to  bring  about  the  popular  rising  of 
1 38 1.  Complaints  were  made  in  Parliament  that  many 
villeins  withdrew  from  service,  and  "  gathered  themselves 
together  into  great  routs,''  agreeing  that  every  one 
"  shall  aid  others  to  resist  their  lords  with  strong  hand." 

When  the  actual  outbreak  occurred,  the  chief  demand 
was  for  the  abolition  of  slavery.  This  was  no  sentimental 
grievance.  It  was  not  even  a  hardship  that  might  be 
mitigated    or    neutralized    by   other    conditions;    such    as 


432  THE  PEASANTS'  RISING,  [chap,  xxvii. 

abundance  of  food  and  light  labour;  even  if  these  had 
prevailed.  Copious  details  have  been  already  given,  but 
it  is  needful  to  repeat  that,  since  the  Black  Death,  per- 
sistent attempts  had  been  made  to  re-impose  the  bonds 
of  domestic  slavery,  which  had  become  relaxed  by 
circumstances.  Many  of  the  services  exacted  from  villeins 
were  galling  in  the  extreme.  They  were  subjected  to 
new,  arbitrary,  and  unjust  exactions.  Complaints  in  the 
local  courts  were  useless ;  because  the  authors  of  the 
wrong  were  usually  the  judges.  The  peasant  was  legally 
tied  to  the  place  where  he  was  born.  If  permitted  to  live 
elsewhere,  it  was  only  by  paying  a  tax  to  his  lord.  He 
was  held  in  a  state  of  irksome  servitude.  From  petty 
oppression  and  tyranny  he  had  no  escape.  He  was 
plundered  with  impunity  by  his  lord,  and  heavily  taxed 
by  the  royal  officers.  Security  for  life,  liberty,  and 
property  was  precarious.  Everything  that  he  had  or  did 
was  on  sufferance.  He  could  not  legally  inherit,  or 
become  plaintiff  in  an  action.  It  is  doubtful  whether  his 
testimony  was  accepted  in  a  court  of  law.  His  daughter 
could  not  marry  without  license  and  fine.  He  could  not 
apprentice  his  children  to  a  trade,  unless  he  purchased 
their  freedom  ;  and  this  depended  on  the  caprice  or  the 
necessities  of  the  lord  of  the  soil.  Consent  might  be  arbi- 
trarily withheld,  even  if  the  villein  was  able  and  willing 
to  pay.  His  grain  must  be  ground  only  at  the  lord's  mill, 
and  at  the  price  he  chose  to  fix.  The  literature  of  the 
time  abounds  in  incidental  references  to  the  villein.  He 
is  contemptuously  styled  "doggish,"  "swinish,"  and 
hating  all  "gentility."  One  writer  asks, — "Why  should 
they  eat  beef,  or  any  other  dainty  food?  They  ought  to 
eat  for  their  Sunday  diet  nettles,  reeds,  briars,  and  straw ; 
while  pea-shells  are  good  enough  for  their  everyday 
food."  Other  writers  represent  the  entire  class  as  in- 
capable of  telling  the  truth,  and  as  utterly  devoid  of 
gratitude.  A  proverbial  expression  was,  "  Do  good  to 
the  villein,  and  he  will  do  evil  to  you." 

The  long-repressed  cry  of  the  poor  found  articulate 
utterance,  soon  after  the  Black  Death,  in  the  words  of 
"a  crazy  priest  in  the  county  of  Kent,  called  John  Ball." 
He  is  so  described  by  the  chivalrous  and  perfumed 
Froissart.      He    adds    that    Ball— who,    however,    lived 


A.D.  1 377-1399*]  JOHN  BALL.  433 

chiefly  in  Essex,  not  in  Kent, — "for  his  absurd  preach- 
ing, had  thrice  been  confined  in  prison  by  the  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury."  But  he  would  not  be  silenced.  More 
than  any  one  else,  he  was  the  head  and  inspiration  of  the 
movement.  Whenever  he  was  at  large,  he  traversed  the 
country  and  addressed  crowds  of  yeomen  and  peasants ; 
denouncing  the  tyranny  of  lords  and  prelates  ;  asserting 
popular  rights ;  and  declaring  in  colloquial  phraseology 
the  Gospel  as  taught  by  the  Lollards.  He  was  particu- 
larly bold  in  exposing  the  injustice  of  the  methods  for 
levying  tithes,  and  the  actual  slavery  that  prevailed  in 
Essex,  where  people  were  sold  like  cattle.  "  By  what 
right  are  they  whom  we  call  '  lords '  greater  folk  than 
we  ?  Why  do  they  hold  us  in  serfage  ?  They  are 
clothed  in  velvet,  and  warm  in  their  furs  and  ermines, 
while  we  are  covered  with  rags.  They  have  wine,  and 
spices,  and  fair  bread,  and  we  oat-cake  and  straw,  and 
water  to  drink.  They  have  leisure  and  fine  houses  ;  we 
have  pain  and  labour,  the  rain  and  wind  in  the  fields. 
And  yet  it  is  of  us  and  of  our  toil  that  these  men  hold 
their  state."  Granting  that  this  was  Socialism  and 
Levelling,  the  spirit  of  angry  resistance  was  excited,  then 
as  always,  by  the  selfishness  and  injustice  of  the  propertied 
classes.  A  popular  rhyme  of  the  day  asked — "When 
Adam  delved  and  Eve  span,  who  was  then  the  gentle- 
man ? "  Quaint  jingle  of  this  kind  was  freely  circulated 
in  manuscript  or  by  word  of  mouth  ;  the  precursor  of  the 
political  pamphlet  of  after  ages.  The  charges  against 
John  Ball,  of  being  an  incendiary  preacher  and  a  mad 
fanatic,  are  absolutely  devoid  of  foundation.  They  were 
recklessly  made  by  hireling  scribes  who  sold  their  facile 
pens  to  the  ruling  classes.  The  story  of  men  like  John 
Ball,  Wat  Tiler,  Jack  Cade,  and  others  who  became  the 
mouth-piece  of  the  mute,  suffering,  helpless,  and  oppressed 
multitude,  has  been  told  by  men  who  had  no  sympathy 
with  popular  rights.  Their  evidence  is  untrustworthy ; 
being  tainted  by  prejudice  and  hatred. 

Ball  seems  to  have  been  deeply  moved  by  the  condition 
of  the  people.  His  main  counsel  was  that  they  should 
appeal  to  the  King  for  justice.  Nor  was  he  by  any  means 
alone  in  his  advocacy.  To  this  period  must  be  assigned 
the  'Vision  of  Piers  Ploughman,'  ascribed  to  William 
30 


434  THE  PEASANTS'  RISING',  [chap,  xxvii. 

l,;ingland  ;  conjectured  to  have  been  a  monk  of  Malvern. 
This  poem  was  written,  judging  by  internal  evidence, 
about  1362  ;  for  it  contains  allusions  to  localities  and 
events  connected  with  that  year.  The  writer,  if  not  u 
Wyclififite.  was  in  sympathy  with  the  Reformer.  It 
is  a  work  of  exceptional  power  and  elevation  of  senti- 
ment, and  throws  a  vivid  light  upon  England  and  the 
li^nglish  of  the  time.  Its  value  as  a  picture  of  society  is 
greater  than  its  poetical  merit.  The  author  was  aroused 
to  indignation  by  the  degeneracy  of  the  prelates,  the 
venality  of  Rome,  the  King's  neglect,  the  robbery  of 
the  poor  by  the  great  lords,  and  the  general  disorga- 
nization of  society.  He  urges  with  seriousness  what 
CJhaucer  was  urging  with  equal  earnestness,  but  with  a 
lively  wit,  brightened  by  a  courtly  residence.  Nothing 
reveals  so  vividly  the  social  gulf  between  the  rich  and 
the  poor  than  the  contrasted  style  of  these  two  writers. 
The  language  employed  by  Langland,  though  rough  and 
coarse,  is  that  used  by  the  country-folk  of  the  time  ; 
plain,  colloquial,  vigorous,  pungenr,  descriptiv^e,  and 
terribly  realistic.  Without  intentional  rhyme,  but  in 
the  alliterative  manner  of  pld  English  verse,  this  national 
poet  addresses  himself  to  the  humblest  by  means  of  an 
allegory ;  as  John  Bunyan  did  three  centuries  later. 
Unlike  the  '  Pilgrim's  Progress,'  however,  the  spirit  of 
*  Piers  Ploughman,'  is  chiefly  satirical.  Both  writers 
knew  their  power ;  both  measured  the  tastes  and 
capacities  of  the  people ;  and  both  were  successful  in  a 
marvellous  degree  in  arousing  attention  and  in  swaying 
a  benignant  influence.  The  familiar  homeliness,  sim- 
plicity, and  directness  of  both  found  a  way,  as  Bacon 
says,   to  men's  business  and  bosoms. 

The  'Vision'  exhibits  with  appalling  fidelity,  and  as 
with  a  moral  scalpel,  the  pride  and  selfishness  of  the  rich  ; 
the  dishonesty  of  merchants  and  traders  ;  the  scandalous 
corruption  of  the  clergy;  the  degradation  of  the  poor; 
and  the  moral  and  spiritual  awakening  that  had  begun. 
Yet  the  writer  does  not  attack  the  doctrines  of  the 
Church  ;  but  only  its  political  and  social  abuses.  He 
was  born  and  spent  his  life  among  the  poor.  He  knew 
from  bitter  experience  their  toil  and  hardships  :  their 
famine   and   cold ;    their    sufl'erings    and   wrongs ;    their 


A.D.  1377-1399.]   PIERS  PLOUGHMAN.  43<; 

joyless  monotony  and  their  despair ;  all  of  which  he 
describes  with  the  grim  irony  of  Hogarth,  the  realism  of 
Dante,  and  almost  with  the  savage  cynicism  of  Swift. 
For  more  than  a  century  this  poem  enjoyed  great 
popularity.  It  had  much  effect  also  in  the  work  of 
religious  and  political  reformation.  Many  parodies  and 
imitations  of  it  attest  its  power.  One  is  a  poem  of  some 
length,  the  '  Creed  of  Piers  Ploughman,'  composed  pro- 
bably in  1393  or  1394,  and  pretending  to  emanate  from 
the  writer  of  the  '  Vision.'  It  is,  however,  again  judging 
by  internal  evidence,  the  work  of  a  different  author.  It 
is  the  embodiment  of  the  democratic  principle  which  lay 
at  the  foundation  of  opinions  then  agitating  the  world. 
"Phis  poem  describes  in  vigorous  language,  and  with  illus- 
trations which,  as  usual,  often  descend  to  coarseness,  the 
pride  and  the  worldly  character  of  the  priests,  their 
luxury  and  simony.  The  priesthood  in  general  are 
accused  of  taking  Judas  as  their  pattern.  The  secular 
clergy  were  selfish  and  eager  to  make  money.  So  strictly 
did  they  collect  their  dues  that  they  would  put  people  in 
the  stocks  for  the  tithing  of  a  duck,  or  an  apple,  or  an 
egg.  They  were  always  to  be  seen  at  the  wrestling  and 
the  wake,  and  were  "  chief  chanters  at  the  alehouse." 
The  monks  were  rich,  proud,  and  worldly-minded,  and 
lived  like  lords. 

Other  lampoons  of  the  day,  yet  surviving,  rude  and 
rough  though  they  are,  express  the  strong  feeling  that 
led  to  the  revolt  of  the  peasants ;  setting  forth  their 
demands  for  right  and  justice,  their  resentment  against 
their  oppressors,  and  their  indignant  sense  of  the  vices  of 
the  Court.  To  these  poor,  toiling,  suffering,  half-starved 
people  the  burden  of  life  was  crushing,  and  the  evils  of 
which  they  complained  were  real  and  urgent.  They 
were  ridiculed  and  flouted  by  Court  sycophants  and 
witlings.  Knights  and  men-at-arms  thrust  them  aside 
or  rode  over  them.  Cower,  the  poet,  refers  in  his  '  Vox 
Clamantis  '  to  the  names  by  which  some  of  the  leaders 
were  known,  and  puns  upon  them  in  doggerel  fashion  in 
some  Latin  lines  which  quaint  old  P'uUer  has  freely 
rendered.  Flippant  ridicule  of  this  kind,  though  cheap 
and  easy,  was  no  answer  to  popular  demands.  'Phcy  in- 
cluded such  just  and  reasonable  things  as   the  abolition 


436  THE  PEASANTS'  RISING,  [chap,  xxvii. 

of  bondage,  the  doing  away  of  market  tolls  and  imposts 
on  trades,  and  that  "  no  acre  of  land  held  in  villenage  be 
held  at  higher  rate  than  fourpence  a  year.  In  other 
words,  there  was  to  be  a  fixed  rent,  instead  of  uncertairt 
and  arbitrary  service.  There  were,  of  course,  diverse 
objects  sought.  Local  circumstances  operated.  In 
London,  John  of  Gaunt  had  made  himself  unpopular, 
and  was  denounced  ;  but  in  Kent  it  was  vaguely  pro- 
posed to  make  him  King.  In  the  same  county  lawyers 
were  assailed ;  being  specially  obnoxious.  In  Suffolk,  the 
title-deeds  of  the  landlords,  and  m.ortgage  bonds  held  by 
monasteries,  were  seized  and  burned.  This  was  done  in 
other  places  with  the  rolls  of  taxation  and  with  the  county 
records.  Millstones  were  broken,  in  protest  agamst  the  mo- 
nopoly that  compelled  all  corn  to  be  ground  by  the  lord 
of  the  manor,  at  any  charge  he  chose  to  fix.  Various 
grievances  found  opportunity  for  assertion ;  as  did  the 
indulgence  of  private  feuds  and  grudges.  These  demands 
and  acts  were  the  first  blind  and  blundering  steps  into 
freedom  of  long  down  trodden  and  despised  serfs.  The 
representatives  of  authority  were  never  less  likely  to 
command  respect  than  at  the  crisis  when  this  was  most 
needful  to  preserve  law  and  order  from  a  terrible  over- 
throw. 

The  immediate  occasion  of  the  portentous  outbreak 
of  the  peasants,  as  distinguished  from  the  main  causes 
already  described,  was  an  attempt  to  levy  a  capitation 
tax;  imposed  in  1377,  and  rarely  heard  of  in  England 
before  that  time.  In  the  initial  instance  it  was  a  uniform 
poll-tax  of  a  groat,  or  fourpence,  levied  alike  on  the  poor 
and  the  rich.  Holinshed  says  it  was  paid  with  great 
grudging,  and  many  a  bitter  curse.  The  second  attempt, 
in  1379,  was  regulated  by  estate  and  rank  ;  ranging  from 
six  pounds  thirteen  and  fourpence  down  to  fourpence  ; 
the  latter  being  the  scale  for  an  ordinary  labourer,  and 
payable  by  every  person  above  the  age  of  fifteen.  The 
anticipated  sum  of  one.  hundred  thousand  pounds  was 
not  yielded  by  one-half.  Yet,  in  the  following  year,  a 
third  imposition  of  the  kind  was  attempted.  Instead  of 
being  graduated,  every  lay  person,  male  and  female,  above 
fifteen,  however  poor,  was  assessed  at  three  groats.  This 
was   equivalent  to  fifteen  shillings  of  modern  money,  or 


A.D.  1377-1399]      CAPITATION  TAX.  437 

four  days'  wages  of  an  ordinary  labourer,  who  had  to 
pay  the  same  tax  for  his  wife,  and  for  each  of  his  children 
above  the  specified  age.  To  such,  it  was  dire  oppression, 
which  was  not  mitigated  by  persons  of  substance  being 
ironically  exhorted  to  assist  the  poor  to  pay.  The  famous 
saying  attributed  to  Tiberius  Caesar,  in  reference  to 
excessive  taxation,  has  been  too  often  unheeded  by 
arbitrary  rulers  :  —  "It  is  the  duty  of  a  good  shepherd 
to  shear  his  sheep  ;  not  to  flay  them."  As  is  always  the 
case  with  taxation,  this  particular  levy  pressed  heavily 
upon  artisans  and  mechanics,  and  on  all  who  subsisted 
by  handicraft  or  agriculture.  It  was  brought  home  to 
every  family,  even  the  poorest,  in  an  irritating  form. 
The  amount  realized  was  again  much  below  the  esti- 
mate, and  commissioners  were  sent  through  the  Home 
Counties  to  make  inquiries.  Thus  the  notorious  waste- 
fulness of  the  Court  and  the  mismanagement  of  the  French 
wars  were  thrust  into  prominence  and  compelled  discus- 
sion in  every  household. 

A  plan  was  next  adopted  of  farming  out  the  arrears, 
on  the  modern  Turkish  plan  ;  with  the  inevitable  result 
of  rapacity,  extortion,  insolence,  and  cruelty  on  the  part 
of  the  collectors.  Resentment  soon  grew  into  resistance, 
not  only  because  of  the  imposition  of  the  tax,  but  chiefly 
on  account  of  the  coarse  and  brutal  manner  in  which  it 
was  exacted.  Knighton  says  that  it  was  not  uncommon 
to  end  disputes  as  to  the  legal  age  of  those  from  whom 
])ayment  was  demanded,  especially  in  the  case  of  girls,  by 
resorting  to  a  summary  method  of  personal  examination 
that  outraged  every  feeling  of  modesty.  An  act  like  that 
which  led  to  the  overthrow  of  the  Decemvirs  in  the  case 
of  Virginius  and  his  daughter,  or  the  one  that  caused  the 
Sicilian  Vespers,  led  to  an  outbreak  in  this  country.  The 
English  of  the  fourteenth  century  were  not  a  people  to 
tolerate  such  treatment,  nor  would  they  submit  to  its 
judicial  enforcement.  The  Chief  Justice  of  the  Common 
Pleas  was  hurriedly  dispatched  to  restore  tranquillity. 
This  meant  the  prompt  suppression  of  all  resistance  by 
the  strong  arm  of  law.  The  patent  plan  of  bad  rulers 
was  adopted,  of  giving  short  shrift  to  a  number  of  miser- 
able wretches,  who  were  perfunctorily  tried  and  then 
strung    up  in  rows  upon  gibbet:;.     A  summary  stop  was 


438  THE  PEASANTS'  RISING,  [chap,  xxvii. 

put  to  this  procedure  by  threatening  reprisals  upon  the 
judge  himself.  All  this  augmented  the  disaffection,  in- 
stead of  subduing  it.  Thousands  of  people  assembled  in 
Essex,  Herts,  Cambridge,  Norfolk,  Kent,  and  elsewhere; 
as  far  West  as  Devon,  and  as  far  North  as  Yorkshire. 
Norwich  Castle  was  stormed.  Of  the  Bishop  of  that 
diocese,  Henry  Spencer,  known  by  the  sobriquet  of  the 
Fighting  Prelate,  the  story  is  told  that  after  having 
routed  one  body  of  insurgents,  he  exchanged  his  weapons 
and  armour  for  his  sacerdotal  robes,  and  confessed  and 
absolved  his  prisoners  as  he  hurried  them  to  the  gibbet 
without  form  of  trial. 

The  combustible  materials  only  awaited  a  spark  ;  and 
this  was  soon  applied.  The  collection  of  the  obnoxious 
poll-tax  was  to  be  made  at  Whitsuntide,  which  fell  early 
in  June  of  the  year  1381.  On  the  fifth,  one  of  the 
collectors  entered  the  house  of  an  artisan  in  the  town 
of  Dartford,  in  Kent.  That  county  had  been  ruled  by 
Gavelkind  and  other  local  customs,  from  Saxon  times, 
and  its  people  sacredly  cherished  a  spirit  of  freedom  and 
independence.  They  knew  nothing  of  the  "  servitude 
that  hugs  her  chain."  By  ancient  usage,  every  one  born 
within  the  county  was  free,  even  though  the  parents  were 
villeins.  This  explains  their  passionate  love  of  liberty, 
and  the  prompt,  stern  action  taken  in  this  case.  The 
collector  demanded  payment  for  a  girl  who  stood  by. 
The  mother  asserted  she  was  not  of  age  to  be  liable  to 
the  tax.  The  dispute  grew  warm,  and  the  man  proceeded 
to  take  liberties  with  the  daughter.  The  indignation  of 
the  woman,  vented  in  loud  cries,  aroused  her  neighbours. 
News  of  the  insult  to  his  wife  and  child  reached  Walter 
the  Tiler  at  his  work.  He  ran  through  the  town  with 
his  tool  in  his  hand,  and  placing  himself  before  the 
ruffian,  demanded  on  what  authority  he  had  dared  so  to 
conduct  himself.  The  knave  became  abusive,  when  a 
miserable  tax-payer  presumed  to  question  a  royal  tax- 
gatherer,  and  he  levelled  a  blow  at  Walter,  who,  with  a 
single  stroke  of  his  lathing-hammer,  laid  the  collector 
dead  at  his  feet.  Multitudes  gathered  around,  expressed 
their  admiration  of  his  conduct,  and  vowed  to  defend 
him.  The  flame  of  insurrection  quickly  spread.  Within 
a  few  weeks  Walter  appeared  at  Blackheath  at  the  head 


A.D.  1377-1399.]    A  GENERAL  RISIAG.  439 

of  a  body  vaguely  said  to  number  not  less  than  a  hundred 
thousand  persons,  and  armed  with  such  rude  weapons  as 
came  to  hand.  Communications  had  long  before  been 
opened  with  the  villeins  on  the  other  side  of  the  metro- 
polis, and  arrangements  made  for  a  general  rising,  which 
was  probably  somewhat  precijntated  by  these  events. 
Robert  Southey  has  dramatized  them  in  a  manner  un 
worthy  of  his  fame. 

Thus  far,  the  great  men  who  were  regarded  as  having 
given  evil  counsel  to  the  boy-King,  Richard  II.  (b.  1366, 
r.  1377-1389),  appear  to  have  been  the  exclusive  objects 
of  resentment.  To  the  day  on  which  the  insurgents 
halted  at  Blackheath,  the  oath  exacted  of  all  who  joined 
them  was  that  of  fidelity  to  Richard  and  the  Commons. 
The  King  sent  to  inquire  into  the  cause  of  the  tumult. 
The  answer  returned  was  that  they  sought  an  audience. 
Some  of  the  royal  councillors  advised  him  to  consent  ; 
but  Sudbury,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  spoke  scornfully 
of  the  persons  from  whom  this  request  had  proceeded  ; 
designating  them,  among  other  epithets,  as  "  shoeless 
ribalds."  Unfortunately  for  him,  the  advice  and  the 
contemptuous  phrase  were  not  forgotten.  A  few  days 
later,  a  crowd  forced  its  way  into  the  Tower  of  London, 
beheaded  the  Archbishop,  the  commissioner  of  the  poll- 
tax,  and  some  others,  as  traitors  ;  and  bore  the  heads 
on  lances  through  the  streets  in  triumph.  The  King 
promised  to  grant  an  audience  at  Rotherhithe ;  and  if 
this  had  been  carried  out,  the  unhappy  events  of  the 
following  days  might  have  been  prevented.  The  main 
body  assembled  on  Blackheath,  resolved  to  march  upon 
London,  where  they  were  sure  of  sympathy  from  the 
populace.  For  several  days  the  city  was  in  their  hands  ; 
yet  no  damage  was  done  and  no  violence  was  perpetrated, 
excepting  that  John  of  Gaunt's  magnificent  palace  of  the 
Savoy  was  pillaged  and  destroyed  ;  as  was  the  house  of 
the  Knights  Hospitallers  in  Clerkenwell,  whose  Prior 
had  become  obnoxious  by  the  way  in  which  he  had 
discharged  the  duties  of  King's  Treasurer.  The  design 
was  to  punish  some  who  were  regarded  as  enemies  and 
traitors,  so  that  the  poor  might  have  a  chance  to  live 
under  good  laws  and  better  government.     At    the   same 


440  THE  PEASANTS'  RISING,  [chap,  xxvii. 

time  a  proclamation  was  issued  forbidding  individual 
plunder. 

So  dire  was  the  exigency,  that  Richard's  advisers 
recommended  a  policy  of  moderation  and  concession, 
as  the  only  means  of  appeasing  the  clamour.  The  young 
King  at  length  held  the  promised  conference  with  the 
popular  leaders  at  Mile  End,  and  another  one  in  Smith- 
field.  He  engaged  to  redress  their  grievances  ;  especially 
that  arbitrary  rents  and  fines  should  cease,  that  there 
should  be  freedom  to  buy  and  sell  in  all  fairs  and 
markets,  and  that  slavery  should  be  abolished ;  on 
condition  that  the  multitude  dispersed  and  returned  to 
their  homes.  The  royal  clerks  were  busy  writing  letters 
of  pardon  and  emancipation  ;  soon  to  be  proved  worth- 
less. During  the  colloquy  in  Smithfield,  a  dispute  arose 
between  Wat  Tiler  and  one  of  the  royal  squires,  in  the 
midst  of  which  Sir  Wm.  Walworth,  the  Lord  Mayor, 
attacked  and  killed  Tiler.  Threats  of  revenge  were 
heard,  and  for  a  few  minutes  the  condition  of  affairs  was 
critical ;  when  Richard,  with  the  boldness  of  a  boy — he 
was  only  fifteen — and  the  spirit  of  his  race,  rode  into  the 
crowd  and  offered  to  be  their  leader.  One  object  of  their 
movement  had  been  to  free  the  youthful  sovereign  from 
alleged  evil  advisers ;  and  so,  with  a  trust  that  was 
pathetic,  if  simple,  they  were  induced  to  separate,  and 
the  danger  passed.  The  entire  rising  had  occurred  in  a 
fortnight.  Measures  were  instantly  devised  by  the  ruling 
party  to  undo  what  had  been  done  and  to  exact  vengeance 
to  the  full.  According  to  Froissart,  fifteen  hundred  of 
the  offenders  perished  in  various  counties  by  the  hands 
of  the  executioner.  In  addition  to  these,  four  times  the 
number  are  said  to  have  been  ridden  down  and  slaughtered 
by  the  chivalrous  barons  and  knights,  as  soon  as  the 
immediate  danger  was  over. 

The  priest,  John  Ball,  was  arrested  at  Coventry,  and 
taken  to  St.  Alban's,  where  the  Court  was  being  held. 
Under  the  influence  of  terror  or  of  compulsion,  he 
made,  or  was  said  to  have  made  before  his  execution,  a 
confession  implicating  the  Wycliffites  ;  although  this  is 
doubtful.  Their  opponents  eagerly  grasped  the  weapon 
thus  placed  in  their  hands,  and  the  followers  of  the 
Reformer  were  henceforth  assailed  not  only   as   heretics 


A.D.  1377-1399]  CONCESSIONS  Or'  WITHDRA  IVALS.441 

but  as  subvertors  of  public  order.  In  some  cases  where 
men  were  charged,  the  royal  letters  of  pardon  and  manu- 
mission were  exhibited ;  only  to  be  met  with  insolent 
scorn.  Richard  himself  is  reported  to  have  said  in  one 
instance,  in  reply  to  such  a  plea,  "  Villeins  you  were,  and 
villeins  you  are.  In  bondage  you  shall  abide,  and  that 
not  your  old  bondage,  but  a  worse."  This  resembles 
what  is  recorded  of  Rehoboam  ;  and  perhaps  the 
Chronicler  placed  the  rhetorical  rebuff  in  the  mouth 
of  Richard.  He  cancelled  the  letters  and  repudiated  his 
promises,  under  the  pretext  that  they  had  been  extorted 
by  violence.  When  Parliament  met  in  November,  1381, 
his  action  was  approved.  Nothing  was  done  to  remedy 
the  evils  that  had  led  to  the  attempted  revolution.  The 
landlord  Parliament  declared  that  under  no  circumstances 
would  they  give  up  the  services  of  their  villeins.  Richard 
had  not  the  patriotism  or  the  heroism  to  place  himself  at 
the  head  of  the  peasants — excepting  in  the  one  brief 
moment  of  excitement — and  thus  obtain  consideration 
for  their  just  demands.  On  the  other  hand,  he  was 
jealous  and  fearful  of  the  dominant  class,  whom  he  was 
unable  to  curb.  The  hour  of  freedom  had  not  yet 
struck,  but  the  moments  were  rapidly  passing  on,  and 
not  all  the  declarations  and  resistance  of  King,  Lords,  and 
Commons  could  retard  the  stroke.  The  royal  pardon 
was  granted  to  those  who  had  assisted  in  repressing  and 
punishing  all  "who  now  of  late  did  traitorously  rise  by 
assemblies  in  outrageous  number ; "  just  as  an  Act  of 
Indemnity  was  passed  for  the  illegal  and  barbarous 
manner  of  suppressing  the  Irish  Rebellion  of  1798.  This 
was  to  justify  the  rough  and  violent  methods  pursued  in 
stamping  out  the  tumult.  All  agreements  and  bonds 
made  during  the  time  by  compulsion  or  menace  w'ere 
declared  void.  Six  years  later,  additional  precautions 
were  taken  against  a  diminution  of  the  supply  of  villeins, 
by  an  enactment  that  any  boy  or  girl  who  had  served  at 
the  plough  or  cart  till  the  age  of  twelve,  should  hence- 
forth abide  at  the  same  labour,  and  it  was  declared 
illegal  to  teach  them  any  other  handicraft.  Nor  were 
they  to  be  sent  to  school,  lest  they  should  be  advanced 
in  the  world  by  entering  the  Church. 

Thus    the    insurrection    was    put    down    by    force    and 


442  '     THE  PEASANTS'  RISING,   [chap,  xxvii. 

vengeance  ;  but  only  for  a  time.  This  servile  war  was 
all  but  successful,  and  the  recollection  of  it  emboldened 
others  in  subsequent  attempts.  Andromeda  waited,  and 
not  in  vain,  for  her  Perseus.  If  the  royal  and  baronial 
party  supposed  that  the  mischief  was  ended,  they  were 
grievously  mistaken.  They  only  remitted  to  their  children 
the  working  out  of  a  problem  the  difficulties  of  which 
increased  with  time.  Yet  although  a  heavy  penalty  was 
exacted  from  the  peasants  for  their  temerity  in  resisting 
oppression,  the  system  of  villenage  was  doomed. 
Nominally  refused,  the  demands  made  were  silently 
accorded  before  long.  Out  of  immediate  and  temporary 
failure  was  evolved  ultimate  and  permanent  success. 
The  plant,  nettle,  yielded  the  flower,  safety.  Weary 
watching,  indignant  resistance,  heroic  protest,  patient 
endurance,  imprisonment,  tears,  and  death  were  needed 
to  develop  a  noble  and  happy  Future.  It  seemed  also  as 
if  the  great  religious  movement  under  Wycliffe  was 
checked,  if  not  defeated  ;  for  in  the  panic  caused  by  the 
Peasants'  Revolt  it  was  boldly  and  unscrupulously 
asserted  that  his  doctrines  were  provocative  of  the  out- 
break. Thus  the  odium,  the  hatred,  and  the  vengeance 
were  directed  against  him.  The  prelates  combined  with 
the  Court  to  make  the  most  and  the  worst  of  this.  For 
a  time,  they  appeared  to  triumph  ;  but  the  day  of 
retribution  dawned  at  length,  and  the  work  of  Wycliffe 
was  crowned  and  vindicated. 

Any  one  competent  to  discern  the  signs  of  the  times 
might  have  perceived  the  inutility  of  such  measures  as  the 
Statutes  of  Labourers  and  similar  enactments,  which, 
though  less  than  fifty  years  old,  were  already  a  dead  letter. 
Instead  of  wise  concessions  being  made  at  this  crisis,  which 
would  have  deprived  the  popular  complaint  of  its  sting, 
fresh  venom  was  added  by  insensate  efforts  to  revive  the 
oppressions  of  an  effete  Feudalism.  Froissart,  its  warm 
panegyrist,  has  recorded  his  opinion  that  the  turbulence  of 
the  English  peasantry  was  caused  by  their  being  too 
comfortable  !  The  knightly  Chronicler,  whose  sympathies 
were  narrowed  to  his  own  class,  says, — "  The  evil-disposed 
began  to  rise  ;  saying  that  they  were  too  severely  oppressed, 
^hat  at  the  beginning  of  the  world  there  were  no  slaves, 
and  that  no  one  ought  to  be  treated  as  such  unless  he  had 


A.D.  1377-1399]   VILLENAGE  DOOMED,  443 

committed  treason.  .  .  .  This  they  would  not  longer  bear, 
but  had  determined  to  be  free  ;  and  if  they  laboured  or 
did  any  other  works  for  their  lords  they  would  be  paid  for 
it."  So  far  from  Froissart's  conjectural  reason  being  the 
true  one,  the  great  extent  of  the  insurrection  proved  that  it 
was  the  result  of  much  suffering.  It  was,  in  reality,  a 
revolt  against  the  false  system  of  political  and  social 
economy  hitherto  accepted  almost  unquestioningly  as  the 
Divine  order  of  the  world.  As  Bacon  sagely  remarks  : — 
"  It  is  the  solecism  of  power  to  think  to  command  the 
end,  and  yet  not  to  endure  the  means." 

That  momentary  glimpse  into  the  condition  of  thousands 
of  toiling  slaves  of  the  soil,  as  into  some  seething  Tartarus, 
reveals  as  by  a  lightning  flash  their  horrible  condition. 
They  were  bought  and  sold  with  the  properties  to  which 
they  were  irremoveably  attached.  Whenever  the  country 
suffered  from  calamity,  pestilence,  or  war,  as  it  had  been 
suffering  to  the  extreme  limit  of  endurance,  it  was  upon 
them  that  the  heaviest  part  of  the  misery  fell.  They  were 
just  awakening,  under  new  religious  and  social  impulses, 
to  a  knowledge  of  what  was  their  due.  In  a  moment  of 
frenzy,  under  provocations  which  might  have  maddened 
wiser  men,  they  rushed  into  revolt.  It  failed  for  the  time, 
yet,  in  a  nobler  sense,  it  triumphed.  Economic  laws 
proved  too  strong  for  the  ruling  classes.  They  found  it  to 
be  advantageous  to  bargain  with  the  labourer  as  a  freeman, 
rather  than  to  treat  him  as  a  serf  to  be  compelled  to  work 
for  nothing,  or  for  such  a  pittance  as  they  might  choose 
to  dole  out.  The  result  was  that  slavery  in  England 
became  extinct.  It  died  of  inanition.  In  little  more  than 
a  century  it  was  an  archceological  curiosity.  A  rapid  pro- 
cess of  enfranchisement  went  on  through  the  force  of 
circumstances ;  by  the  teaching,  if  not  always  by  the 
example  of  the  Church  ;  and  in  spite  of  the  lords  of  the 
soil.  The  Athenians  erected  a  lofty  statue  to  yEsop, 
though  a  slave,  that  all  might  know  that  the  way  to  fame 
is  open  to  every  one.  In  England,  the  class  of  yeomen 
and  small  freeholders  became  the  basis  of  the  future 
electoral  system,  and  the  labouring  classes  were  ultimately 
enfranchised,  although,  for  a  long  time  unrepresented  in 
the  House  of  Commons. 

While  these  religious  discussions  and  political  and  social 


444  THE  PEASANTS'  RISING,    [chap,  xxvil. 

contests  were  waging,  Richard  II.  was  but  a  cipher  in  the 
hands  of  a  Council  nominated  and  controlled  by  his 
uncles,  the  Dukes  of  Lancaster  and  Gloucester.  The 
Merciless  Parliament  met  in  February,  1388,  and  carried 
on  for  four  months  the  work  that  earned  its  unenviable 
title ;  sweeping  away  the  King's  friends.  He  made 
several  attempts  to  escape  from  tutelage,  but  did  not 
succeed  until  May,  1389,  when  he  attained  the  age  of 
twenty-two.  For  several  years  the  course  of  administra- 
tion was  smooth.  Parliaments  were  regularly  convened, 
and  the  internal  affairs  of  the  country  were  cared  for. 
Richard's  first  wife,  the  Good  Queen  Anne  of  Bohemia, 
as  she  was  termed,  a  girl  to  whom,  when  a  mere  boy,  he 
had  been  married  in  1381,  died  in  1394.  Two  years 
later,  being  then  twenty-nine,  he  contracted  himself  to 
Isabella,  a  child  of  seven,  daughter  of  Charles  VI.  of 
France.  It  was  one  of  the  politic  or  mercenary  unions  of 
the  age,  which,  hke  all' such  alliances,  proved  a  failure  in 
the  end,  although  a  temporary  advantage  was  secured  in 
a  truce  with  France,  which  lasted  for  twenty-eight  years. 
Richard  II.  was  involved  in  a  weary  round  of  Court  in- 
trigues, and  in  a  series  of  personal  quarrels  with  his 
relatives.  He  could  not  forget  and  he  would  not  forgive 
the  indignities  to  which  he  had  been  subjected.  His 
hatred,  if  not  worthy  of  being  called  immortal,  was  as 
deep-rooted  as  his  dissimulation  was  profound.  Any 
number  of  oaths  were  taken  to  keep  the  peace,  and  for 
mutual  reconciliation.  Mock  trials  of  opponents  were 
followed  by  judicial  murders.  Deadly  feuds  arose  that 
were  perpetuated  for  generations.  Out  of  these  squabbles 
eventually  sprung  the  Wars  of  the  Roses,  which  cursed 
the  land  for  thirty  years,  and  resulted  in  the  Tudor 
despotism.  Yet  these  calamities  were  not  unmixed  evils. 
Aristocratic  power,  weakened  during  the  Civil  Wars,  was 
kept  in  strong  check  by  the  Tudors,  and  has  never  since 
been  able  to  assert  itself  in  the  old  dangerous  fashion. 

W^jth  his  successful  emancipation  from  the  thraldom 
of  hfs  uncles,  a  change  for  the  worse,  either  of  character 
or  in  policy,  seems  to  have  come  over  Richard  II.  It  is 
impossible  to  escape  the  conclusion,  judging  from  his 
subsequent  conduct,  that  he  aimed  to  be  absolute.  Like 
i.ome    of  his    predecessors,    he   repudiated    inconvenient 


A.D.  1377-1399.]  ATTEMPTED  ABSOLUTISM.  445 

promises ;  but  he  went  much  further,  and  struck  at 
the  root  of  constitutional  government.  Circumstances 
appeared  to  favour  the  scheme.  Leading  nobles  had 
been  banished,  owing  to  their  mutual  rivalries.  Among 
these  was  Henry  Bolingbroke,  Earl  of  Derby;  created 
Duke  of  Hereford  by  Royal  Patent.  He  was  son  of 
John  of  Gaunt,  and  grandson  of  Edward  HE  His 
father,  after  a  chequered  and  stormy  life,  in  the  latter 
part  of  which  he  claimed  the  throne  of  Castile,  through 
a  second  marriage,  died  in  1399,  three  months  after 
Bolingbroke's  banishment.  The  removal  of  this  wealthy 
but  dangerous  subject  appeared  to  render  Richard  vic- 
torious over  all  obstacles,  and  to  place  within  his  grasp 
the  despotic  power  for  which  he  strove.  He  was 
virtually  above  the  control  of  law.  By  the  grant  of 
a  Subsidy  for  life  on  wool  and  leather,  made  in  a  packed 
Parliament  v.-hich  sat  for  three  days  in  January,  1398, 
in  Shrewsbury,  he  was  relieved  from  the  necessity  of 
convening  the  Legislature  unless  he  chose.  With  the 
aid  of  a  selected  Committee  of  eighteen,  the  members 
of  which  proved  obsequious  ministers  of  his  will,  he 
could  issue  what  Ordinances  he  pleased.  A  former 
declaration  by  the  two  Houses,  that  he  was  as  free-  as 
any  of  his  predecessors,  was  cunningly  interpreted  as 
releasing  him  from  the  obligations  of  Statutes  hostile 
to  an  excessive  royal  prerogative.  But  he  had  forfeited 
the  popularity  earned  during  the  preceding  ten  years ; 
and  his  false  security  hurried  him  on  to  other  acts  of 
despotism,  and  at  length  plunged  him  into  ruin.  He 
raised  money  by  forced  loans  and  by  the  sale  of  trading 
Charters.  He  compelled  judges  to  expound  the  law 
according  to  his  own  wishes.  He  put  at  one  time 
seventeen  counties  out  of  the  protection  of  the  law, 
under  the  pretence  that  they  had  favoured  his  enemies. 
Many  such  despotic  outrages  were  perpetrated,  and  they 
aroused  a  spirit  of  determined  opposition ;  for  it  was 
not  possible  that  such  a  reversal  of  the  work  of  three 
centuries  should  be  permanent. 

Henry  Bolingbroke  had  long  been  the  idol  of  the  fickle 
populace.  The  voluntary  assemblage  of  thousands  to  bid 
him  farewell,  on  his  departure  from  London  into  exile, 
might   have    warned    Richard    of    approaching     danger. 


446  THE  PEASANTS'  RISING,    [chap,  xxvii. 

Yet  it  was  in  this  juncture  that  he  determined  to  go 
in  person  to  Ireland,  to  quell  an  outbreak.  The 
country  had  never  been  really  subdued  since  the  time 
of  Henry  II.  A  partial  settlement,  within  a  very 
limited  area,  had  been  effected  in  1210,  when  King 
John  spent  some  time  in  Ireland.  But  it  was  still 
divided  into  two  unequal  portions ;  the  larger  being 
held  by  the  original  tribes,  who  were  in  a  chronic  state 
of  internecine  warfare  ;  and  the  smaller  by  the  English 
settlers  within  the  districts  around  Drogheda,  Dublin, 
Wexford,  Waterford,  and  Cork.  An  Ordinance  con- 
cerning Ireland  had  been  issued  in  1357.  The  preamble 
recites  various  disorders  which  had  arisen  through  bad 
government  and  neglect  of  the  proper  ofificers.  It 
then  provided  that  "  the  liberties  of  the  Church  shall  be 
confirmed ;  that  all  public  matters  be  freely  discussed  in 
Council  and  in  Parliament  ;  that  Justices  and  other  great 
ofificers  shall  not  retain  evil  counsellors  in  their  service ; 
and  that  purveyances  shall  be  regulated  by  existing 
Statutes."  The  Ordinance  did  not  remedy  the  griev- 
ances complained  of,  and  Ireland  continued  to  be 
misgoverned  and  a  prey  to  internal  strife. 

During  Richard's  absence  of  about  ten  weeks,  Boling- 
broke,  now  Duke  of  Lancaster,  and  other  banished  noble- 
men, opened  communications  with  the  leaders  of  the 
disaffected  party.  A  formidable  conspiracy  was  planned, 
Henry  landed  on  the  Yorkshire  coast  with  a  few 
followers,  and  was  immediately  joined  by  his  powerful 
adherents.  It  was  announced  that  his  sole  object  was 
to  secure  his  patrimony,  wrongfully  withheld  ;  but  other 
and  more  ambitious  designs  were  soon  revealed.  He 
marched  on  London  at  the  head  of  a  force  said  to 
amount  to  sixty  thousand  men,  and  was  received  every- 
where with  enthusiasm.  His  rapid  movements  and  his 
extraordinary  success  decided  many  waverers.  By  the 
time  that  Richard,  after  an  unaccountable  delay,  had 
returned  from  Ireland  to  Milford  Haven,  his  opponent 
had  secured  the  entrances  to  England  against  him  ;  had 
advanced  to  Chester  at  the  head  of  an  imposing  force  ; 
and  was  master  of  all  the  fortresses  on  two  sides  of  an 
imaginary  triangle,  the  apex  of  which  was  at  Bristol,  and 
the   bas.i   of  which   extended   from   the    mouth   of    the 


A.D.  1377-1399J  RICHARD  II.  DEPOSED.  447 

Humber  to  the  mouth  of  the  Dee.  The  King  made 
his  way  by  stealth,  attended  by  a  few  trusty  friends,  to 
the  strong  castle  of  Conway.  'l"he  army  that  he  brought 
from  Ireland  melted  away  like  snow  ;  after  plundering 
the  royal  baggage.  Other  forces  which  he  expected  to 
find  at  Conway  did  not  assemble.  Negotiations  were 
entered  into  with  the  Duke.  There  was  much  cunning 
and  lying  on  both  sides  ;  each  scheming  to  circumvent 
the  other.  In  the  end,  Lancaster  showed  himself  to  be 
the  master  in  the  art  of  duplicity,  and  Richard  became 
his  virtual  prisoner  at  Chester  ;  to  be  exchanged  for 
actual  captivity  in  the  Tower  of  London.  Writs  were 
issued  in  the  royal  name  for  a  Parliament  to  meet  in 
September,  1399.  He  was  then  deposed.  The  Rolls  of 
Parliament  make  it  appear  as  his  own  act  and  deed ;  as 
do  the  partisan  writers  of  the  time.  Early  in  the 
following  year  he  is'  supposed  to  have  died  in  Ponte- 
fract  Castle,  most  probably  by  violence,  although 
the  precise  circumstances  are  shrouded  in  mystery. 
Shakspere's  genius  has  conferred  immortality  upon  a 
story  that  was  first  circumstantially  told  more  than 
a  century  after  that  catastrophe  occurred.  The  Revolu- 
tion which  ensued,  though  brought  about  by  national 
resistance  to  misrule,  is  a  memorable  event  in  English 
history.  The  method  of  its  accomplishment  shows  the 
elaborate  care  taken  to  give  it  the  appearance  of  having 
the  sanction  of  constitutional  forms,  and  to  regulate  by 
the  principles  of  law  acts  performed  by  the  highest 
Court  of  Judicature  in  the  realm.  One  curious  illustra- 
tion of  this  is  that  as  the  Parliament  would  be  dissolved 
by  the  resignation  of  the  King,  just  as  in  the  case  of  his 
death,  hurried  preparations  were  made  to  issue  new  writs 
convening  another  six  days  afterwards.  Before  this  met, 
the  Revolution  was  accomplished.  Henry  IV.  claimed 
the  throne  as  descended  from  Edward  III.,  and  his 
claim  was  recognised  by  the  nondescript  assembly. 

Into  the  personal  review  it  is  unnecessary  to  enter. 
The  only  vital  matter  concerns  the  future  of  English 
liberties.  However  convenient  it  may  be,  in  accordance 
with  the  legal  figment  that  the  King  can  do  no  wrong,  to 
exempt  monarchs  from  criminal  proceedings,  it  cannot 
with   justice   be  denied   that  a   royal  conspiracy  against 


448  THE  PEASANTS'  RISING,    [chap  xxvii. 

popular  freedom  is  as  heinous  as  the  conspiracy  of 
subjects  against  the  authority  of  their  prince.  With 
such  a  conspiracy  Richard  is  indisputably  chargeable, 
and  he  united  an  irascible  temper  with  deep,  lasting, 
and  sleepless  revenge.  But  England  was  the  gainer. 
The  abrupt  termination  of  his  reign  marks  an  era.  Not 
that  a  mere  change  of  dynasty  is  the  central  point  of 
interest,  or  that  the  transition  from  the  direct  Plan- 
tagenet  line  to  a  collateral  branch  materially  affected 
the  national  destinies.  Important  constitutional  issues 
were  raised,  and  settled  in  a  manner  that  formed  a  prece- 
dent for  the  future.  The  nation  was  not  then  prepared 
to  assert  its  rights  against  pretended  royal  prerogative. 
Not  for  nearly  three  centuries  did  the  conclusive  battle 
wage  between  kingly  supremacy  and  representative  con- 
stitutionalism. The  latter  triumphed  in  what  is  now 
universally  described  as  the  Glorious  Revolution.  By 
the  time  of  the  Stuarts,  the  English  people  were  ready 
to  cope  with  despotism  ;  and  they  trrumphed.  In  the 
time  of  Richard  XL,  they  were  politically  uneducated 
and  untrained.  More  could  not  have  been  accomplished. 
Viewing  the  period  now  reached,  by  contrast  with  what 
had  gone  before,  there  had  been  marked  progress.  Two 
hundred  and  thirty-three  years  had  intervened  since  the 
great  Revolution  effected  by  the  Norman  descent  upon 
England.  In  the  interval,  another  Revolution  had  been 
taking  place  in  the  national  life  and  character;  gradually, 
but  marvellously,  and  with  momentous  issues  depending 
upon  it. 

As  in  Nature,  so  in  History,  a  period  of  Development 
is  sometimes  arrested  by  one  of  Retrogression  ;  which  is 
not,  however,  in  either  case,  an  unmitigated  evil. 


End  of  the  First  Volume. 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  CA,  RIVERSIDE  LIBRARY 


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